BlackBerry in Indonesia

The phenomena of BlackBerry in Indonesia is that it is able to penetrate Indonesian market without advertising efforts and only relying on word-of-mouth.

Here are some facts about Indonesia mobile network:

1. Based on The Nielsen Company (2011), mobile phone penetration triples in 5 years
Picture 1. Indonesian Mobile Consumers Trend
2. Based on Frost and Sullivan Research on mobile (2011), Indonesia is the 3rd largest wireless market in Asia

Both facts clearly show that Indonesia is a country with exciting market opportunity for mobile network operators.

Currently, there are two cellular network system adopted by mobile network operators in Indonesia:

1. GSM (Global System for Mobile communication)
2. CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access). 

Among all mobile network operators in Indonesia, Telkomsel is the largest GSM operator in Indonesia with more than 100 million subscribers from more than 200 million people in Indonesia (as on 30 April 2011). Near the end of last year (2010), Telkomsel said to Jakarta Pos that from 94 million customers that they had in the country, BlackBerry users make up less than 1 percent of our customers, or 750 thousand users.

Other operators that currently offer BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS) are:

• Indosat (GSM)
• XL (GSM)
• 3 (GSM)
• Axis (GSM)
• Smart (CDMA)
• Esia (CDMA)

How potential Indonesian mobile user market for Blackberry?

• Indonesia is the largest Blackberry market in the world - you see taxi drivers there on Blackberry Messenger (AMSRS, 2011)
• With more than two million users, Indonesia has become the largest market for BlackBerry in Southeast Asia and has seen its ranks of developers here swell (The Jakarta Globe, 2011)
  

The success of BlackBerry in Indonesia is because BlackBerry is used by greater market segment (not only business people as BlackBerry primary target market). Indonesian people is considered caring to their communities. They have a need to get updates about their communities (including rumors and gossips). Community is important for Indonesian people and BlackBerry has feature that enable them to have better access to communities.

The main features that made people choose a BlackBerry device are:

• BlackBerry Messenger

BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) is a messaging app and service that has no "Sign Off" button or "Invisible" profile. Hence, it is usually always active (except if the owner cancels their BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS) plan) and it is also indirectly forced the users to give response. Indonesian people usually prefer sending a message than making a phone call. BBM users pay BIS daily, weekly, or monthly for unlimited use of the messenger (and other features depend on the package they choose). BBM users are able to update status (and also location or song they currently listening to). It makes their contacts can get recent updates on what happens to their contacts and furthermore also recent news. All contacts in BBM have to be approved before they can start sending messages. All of those make BBM a quick, easy, up to date, and trusted messaging service. 

Other features in BBM make collaboration easier through conference chat and groups. It also makes BBM a place to built communities (through groups). In practice, BBM is really useful to manage networks, discuss, exchange files (incl. pictures), and even market a product or service since messages sent through BBM are from contacts that have been approved.

In practice, without using BlackBerry and BlackBerry messenger, it is difficult to keep up with others because they use BlackBerry and rely on BlackBerry messenger.

• Third Party Apps, especially for Twitter and Facebook

Social Networking Sites are popular in Indonesia because it enhances access to communities (Groups in Facebook) and timely updates on what happen to people in their communities (real time news update in Facebook and Twitter). Mobile internet connection that is considered slow makes mobile phone users rely more on third party apps to access the sites. Figure below may give a better picture of digital media in Indonesia.

Picture 2. Digital Media in Indonesia

Source:

1. The Nielsen Company, Nielsen Wire
2. Jakarta Pos
3. The Jakarta Globe
4. AMSRS