Go-Jek in Indonesia with Rama Mamuaya

Leong Chung Wei Bernard -

Rama Mamuaya, founder and CEO of DailySocial joined us to discuss one of the most important startup unicorns in Indonesia, Go-Jek. We discussed the backstory behind G0-Jek which evolved from a ride-hailing to now a super app that bridge payments, ride hailing and other services in Indonesia, and why it’s giving Grab a run for their money. We examined Go-Jek’s regional expansion strategy and how it is becoming a proxy battle between Alibaba Group and Tencent in Southeast Asia.

Here are the interesting show notes and links to the discussion (with time-stamps included):

  • Rama Mamuaya (@rampok, LinkedIn), Founder and CEO of Dailysocial (@dailysocial) [0:25]
    • Since our last conversation, what have you been up to? [0:28]
      • Launch of DailySocial new innovation-incubation platform [1:30]
      • How does the platform works for small and medium businesses in Indonesia? [2:11]
    • How has the startup ecosystem in Indonesia evolving in the past three years?  [3:20]
  • Go-Jek in Indonesia [5:04]
    • Can you briefly introduce the company Go-Jek and what is their mission and vision as a company? [5:40]
    • Who are the founders behind Go-Jek? [8:16]
    • How does the Indonesian customer access Go-Jek? [11:13]
    • What are the products and services that Go-Jek provide for their users? [13:15]
    • How does Go-Jek differ from the other ride-hailing apps? What is its competitive advantage that made it difficult for Grab to gain a foothold in Indonesia? [15:45]
    • In your opinion, how’s the match-up between Grab and Go-Jek in Indonesia? What are the battlegrounds that these two companies will try to win over the other within Indonesia? [17:44]
    • Thoughts on Indonesia as a massive market and whether it is protective of its local champions similar to India and China. Does Go-Jek have that advantage against Grab [20:06]
    • Who are the investors behind Go-Jek? Google, Tencent, NSI Ventures, Meituan-Dianping and etc. [22:05]
    • Go-Jek has tried to expand across Southeast Asia, do you think that their business model will work with the other countries, given that Grab has a strong foothold in the other markets? [24:02]
    • Comments on effective market size of Indonesia and whether Go-Jek’s super app strategy will work in Indonesia. [24:51]
    • Where will Go-Jek be in 3 years from now [29:47]
  • Closing [31:35]
    • Can you recommend a book, podcast or anything else that has impact to your work and personal life recently? [32:01]
      • Rama’s recommendations: Peter Thiel “Zero to One” and Ben Horowitz “The Hard Thing about Hard Things”
    • How do my audience find you? [32:50]

Podcast Information:

The show is hosted by Bernard Leong (@bernardleong & weibo) and are sponsored by Ideal Workspace (Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn) with their new Altizen Desk (Twitter, Facebook, Medium). Sound credits for the intro music: Taro Iwashiro, “The Beginning” from Red Cliff Soundtrack.