Danger Looming Large In Indonesia’s New E-commerce Law?

March 23, 2013 by | 5 Comments

ecommerce-law-indonesiaUPDATE:
There has been a discussion about the definition of a “Public Service”. In the context now most agree with my definition of “a service that’s accessible for the public”. But I gotta agree that usually “Public Service” is defined as a government service such as gas, electricity and public transport. So probably they should change it to “Public Accessible Digital Service”.

For people who still disagree with this interpretation please read art 1 par 4:

Penyelenggara Sistem Elektronik adalah setiap Orang, penyelenggara negara, Badan Usaha, dan masyarakat yang menyediakan, mengelola, dan/atau mengoperasikan Sistem Elektronik secara sendiri-sendiri maupun bersamasama kepada Pengguna Sistem Elektronik untuk keperluan dirinya dan/atau keperluan pihak lain.

Translation:

Electronic System Operator is any person, state officials, business entities, and community provider, manage and / or operate Electronic systems individually or together to Users for Electronic Systems her needs and / or needs of others.

Pretty clear in my opinion.

ORIGINAL POST

This week the long awaited and probably feared Indonesian E-commerce law PP 82 became public and even though I’m no longer (directly) involved in any e-commerce business I thought I would take some time to read it. Mind you, this law is just the beginning and will be followed by 10 government regulations which will provide more details.

My friends from Dailysocial already reported on this law yesterday highlighting the part that requires any e-commerce company doing business in Indonesia to register in Indonesia as well as running their platform on a .ID domain name. Already excisting e-commerce companies are excused from the last clause, for now they are allowed to continue running their service on a .com or any other top level domain name.

Though I agree that the need for a .ID domain name is weird to say the least, it seems that the law poses bigger worries for new and existing e-commerce players in Indonesia. I won’t be discussing the whole law but just highlight some things that attracted my attention.

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Pirate Bay - Away From The Keyboard Documentary [VIDEO]

February 10, 2013 by | 1 Comment

This was for sure the best way I could have spend 80 minutes of my Sunday, watching the documentary about the founders of Pirate Bay called “Pirate Bay - Away From The KeyBoard”. If you’re a geek or even just have the slightest interest in Internet this is a definite MUST WATCH. If you enjoyed “The Social Network” you probably enjoy this documentary way much more.

Best way I can describe it is using the word “Surreal”. No script writer in Hollywood could possibly come up with the scenario and the characters of this story, it would be dismissed as “over-the-top” or “too far fetched”.

The documentary is about “freedom of speech” or “copyright infringement” depending on where you stand. It’s  IT mixed with a little bit of ideology, intrigues, law suites, lots and lots of alcohol and drugs and a datacenter in an atomic bunker (so cool) resulting in the biggest p2p file sharing site in the world.

Opinion wise I’m totally against copyright infringement and the “Freedom of Speech” argument is total bullshit. On the other hand the movie and record industry should smarten up and realize times have changed. Instead of fighting and trolling they should realize the Internet made/makes people consume in different ways. Sticking to an old school approach will lead to more smarter and harder to fight “Pirate Bays” and not solve any issue at all.

But for me this documentary wasn’t so much interesting from the angle of the debate, it was more the story itself and even more the persons behind Pirate Bay. To see how naive highly intelligent people can be. Another example that being smart and being intelligent don’t always go hand in hand.

If you enjoyed this docu like I did, please help out the makers of this docu with a donation.

Business In Indonesia - The Case Of The Chicken And The Egg

February 9, 2013 by | 0 comments

Cute yellow baby chickThe coming time I want to share a bit about doing business in Indonesia, mostly aimed at foreign investors and entrepreneurs. Because, my fellow foreigners, things are indeed different in Indonesia. Applying the same strategies, approach, culture etc in Indonesia as you’re used to abroad might very well lead to unexpected surprises. But more on that in a later post.

This post is about a simple example of some of the frustrations you will encounter when doing business in Indonesia. Mind you, I love Indonesia and I believe there are great opportunities here. However, I also see Indonesia as a graveyard for foreign entrepreneurs and investors who think they know it all and for sure know better than the Indonesians themselves. If you don’t learn about the culture and the way thinks work in Indonesia, if you’re not extremely patient you might be in for a surprise.

Anyway, when setting up a business you will encounter a lot of bureaucracy and crazy long forms to fill out. It is what it is so just do it. Once you’ve got approval from the Ministry of Justice for your business you need to obtain two documents: SIUP (Business License) and TDP (Company Registration). Easy, just fill out the forms and wait for it… Just one thing, you need a bank account.

Ok, easy lah. You just go to the bank and open account, right? Just one tiny problem. Due to new legislation to fight money laundering  the banks now request your SIUP and TDP, without it no bank account. Uuuuuuhhh……

Good luck with that and till the next “Business In Indonesia”.

Make It Happen! #Life #Startups

February 9, 2013 by | 1 Comment

stop-waiting-make-it-happen

I guess the last months I was kinda numbed compared to the rest of my life. Starting something new isn’t easy, no matter what I might have accomplished in the past. Success is nothing but a snapshot of the moment. Today one can be considered successful and the next day you’re old news.

Success made me a bit lazy and somehow I expected things to happen all by themselves, solely based on what I’ve accomplished in the past. Obviously it doesn’t work like that. What someone did in the past is pretty much irrelevant. What are you doing now? That’s the only thing that matters.

Weird that I’ve gotta realize that again after a live full of highs-and-lows and always making things happen. So back to basics, kick myself in the ass and start building again. No one will make it happen for me and ideas are worth nothing if they’re not turned into action.

Sang Pialang (2013) - Movie Review + Trailer

January 16, 2013 by | 2 Comments

SANG PIALANGLiving in Indonesia for more than 4 years until yesterday I actually never watched an Indonesian produced movie in the cinema. So I was happy to land an invitation for the premiere of the movie “Sang Pialang” (The Broker) in which Christian Sugiono, who invited me (thanks again bro!) plays a lead role. Now seeing a friend in action in a cinema movie is already exciting but the theme of the movie gets me even more excited.

The first sales job I landed was actually in a foreign broker firm. The job started with 6 months, 12 hours per day drilling on sales techniques, on the psychology of selling and basically appealing to greed that’s latent in every human being. I was one of the very few in class to make the cut and worked another year as a “broker” and this was definitely one of the craziest periods in my life. For sure my favorite movie so far on this topic is The Boiler Room which is so similar to my period as a “broker” it’s almost scary. I should actually write a post on this later.

So, having being a “broker” myself (I keep using quotes because basically it was a 100% sales job) and with the Boiler Room being one of my favorite movies all-time I was very curious to the Indonesian version of life as a broker. With the Boiler Room as my favorite movie and my own experience in the market the bar is put quite high.
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Cutting Out Our Lungs

January 14, 2013 by | 0 comments

Rainforest-destruction-Sumatra
Rainforest destruction in Sumatra, Indonesia

I’m generally a person with a positive outlook on the future. Maybe that’s because I, and with me I guess lots of others, choose to close my eyes or look the other way. Our generation is even more effective like the previous generation draining our earth. The worst thing is that maybe unlike the previous generation we actually know and realize the consequences of our behaviour. This picture symbolizes that in the most visual way possible. Draining our earth, killing all wildlife and leaving our kids with a wasteland.

My daughter is 6 years old and I rather don’t think about the world she will be living in 20 years from now. Also I see no other way of explaining what we’re doing with our earth other than saying human beings are a self-destructive species driven by greed and power.

The worst of all is that I actually gave up hope that great people with great initiatives to save our earth can actually make a difference. The power of money and greed is just too strong. I know, pretty dark and pessimistic thoughts, even maybe out of character.

It’s Monday, let’s just keep it at that.

Axe Apollo Space Academy Commercial By BBH London

January 14, 2013 by | 0 comments

AXE ApolloIt seems whatever Axe and their agencies are putting out is getting better by the day. To me they’ve found the right mix between offline effectiveness, online virality by applying a more “cultural” approach instead of a “hard-selling” approach. The core off all this is a great strategy and loads of creativity from BBH London (Bartle, Bogle & Hegarty).

Probably one of the view jobs in the world I envy must be being member of a team that creates campaigns like these. Thinking beyond the usual advertising rules conventions and creating something new and original.

Axe & BBH understands that there’s no trick to get something to go viral, it just needs to be interesting, funny and original enough for people to bother.

So hats of to Axe and BBH for making yet another great commercial.