Gojek, Indonesia's First Decacorn, Luhut: I'm Proud

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Coordinating Ministry for Maritime Affairs Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan said that Indonesian online-based ride-sharing application Gojek has reached an international level. "And we are proud, [Gojek] is one of Indonesian start-up unicorn. Now it has became a decacorn," Luhut said on Thursday, April 11, 2019.

Luhut delivered his statement moments before Gojek held its annual appreciation event for its partners. In the event, titled Mitra Juara Gojek 2019 (Gojek Champion Partner 2019), awards were given to high-achieving partners. The event was attended by President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, cabinet ministers, and thousands of Gojek partners.

However, Gojek Founder and Global CEO Nadiem Makarim, was reluctant to reveal the exact market value of the company. Nevertheless, he did mention that Gojek is the most-used ride sharing application in Indonesia.

Nadiem explained that the data was collected from a report titled "The State of Mobile 2019" released by App Annie, an analysis and insight platform for mobile applications.

"This achievement is in line with Gojek's gross transaction value growth, which increase 13.5 times higher from 2016 to 2018," Nadiem said.

By the end of 2018, Nadiem said that Gojek recorded a total transaction amounting more than USD 9 billion, with a total annual transaction volume of IDR 2 billion.

Luhut said that Gojek has achieved massive progress. "And I am happy to be invited here to witness this. Even when people say, tech jobs are difficult, it is not so. Because Gojek created more jobs," Luhut stated.

Luhut asserted that Gojek has successfully created thousands of hundreds of new jobs which previously unthinkable. "So jobs are now shifting. People have become more efficient, more mobile, more extensive. I think Gojek played an important part," Luhut added.

Luhut mentioned that Gojek has provided large contribution to the Indonesian economy, as many as IDR 44.2 trillion. He added that Indonesia has a large market for start ups. Luhut estimated that as of 2025, there will be USD 100 billion potential market that can be tapped.

"So, no one should say Indonesian money are going out [to foreign countries]. People are racing to enter Indonesian [market] because we have four unicorns, and there will be new ones," Luhut concluded.

HENDARTYO HANGGI