There are three main GSM operators in Indonesia, that are XL, Telkomsel, and Indosat. All of them offer VOIP service as follow:
1. XL
01000 + Country Code + Phone Number
2. Telkomsel
01017 + Country Code + Phone Number
3. Indosat
01016 + Country Code + Phone Number
The Tariff of the three operators is as follow:
Embedded File 1 Tariff Comparison
Note: The tariff used to be shown above is no longer relevant.
I think you may agree with me that it's not true, however I notice that:
- Overseas graduates tend to be more preferable by employers
- Overseas graduates tend to get higher salary
Is it fair? it may be since overseas graduates pay more than local graduates (they invested more fund for their education).
Before I share my thought about overseas graduates who are better than local graduates, I would like to discuss about lifestyle of Indonesian households and some local business:
1. The household of families that can self-fund their children to tertiary education usually consist of parents, children, and helpers. The helper will help the family members to do things that need to be done in a household, such as washing dirty clothes, going out to buy things as instructed by the family members, cooking dishes, and so on.
2. There are local business to help people do things, for example:
- In Airport, when the passenger is claiming his baggage, there is a porter that comes to the passenger and offers help to take the baggage from baggage claim area to parking area or taxi area.
- As an alternate to renew or make a driving license in the police station or motor registry, an administration bureau can take care of it (it will save time to queue, do tests, and so on).
It's different with living overseas, in Indonesia people can get help in doing even simple tasks. The effects of this are:
1. People tend to depend on others.
2. People have less achievements since they did less, thus there are a lot that they can't do (because of the intermediaries).
Further effect of those is that people have less confidence that they can do even those small things by themselves. If they don't have confidence over the small things, how can they have confidence over the bigger matters.
Thus, I think that overseas graduates, who usually do things on their own and depend on their own abilities, will be able to do better than local graduates who depend on others a lot and not confidence with their own abilities.
In this early 2011 Intel has done interesting things for its marketing campaign.
- 18 January: Intel Korea unveiled a collaboration song with Korean Music Group: Girls' Generation (a.k.a. SNSD or So Nyuh Shi Dae). The title is Visual Dream. Here is a preview of the new Girls' Generation video which will kick off Intel's Korean marketing campaign for 2011. Girls' Generation will be featured in Intel's marketing materials in Korea, Japan and other selective Asian countries.
Picture 1 Girls' Generation - Intel Display
- 25 January: Intel hired Will.i.am to fill 'Director of Creative Innovation' position. Will.i.am is a famous music artist, producer and member of a music group: The Black Eyed Peas.
Here is the video:
Video 1 Girls' Generation - Visual Dream
Intel is the market leader in semiconductor chipset business. Intel supplies parts to IT Manufacturers, like HP and Samsung. Hence, Intel is mainly focused in B2B (business-to-business) marketing scheme. Considering those and the theme songs for its commercial in the previous years, those looks like a really awkward move.
List of known songs used in Intel commercials:
2006: Carlos Jean - Mr. Dabada
2007: New Young Pony Club - Ice Cream
2011: Girls' Generation - Visual Dream (Intel Asia)
Do Intel want to look cool?
May be. Intel is often related to Technology and for some people, technology is for Nerds. Intel may want to change that.
Intel's current mission is This decade we will create and extend computing technology to connect and enrich the lives of every person on earth.
Deborah Conrad, Intel vice president and chief marketing officer, testified "Intel is in the midst of transforming the way we communicate with people, Our partnership with will.i.am is a prime example of how we want to convey and deliver the Intel experience. It’s imperative that Intel and our innovations are kept in front of the global youth culture that embraces new devices and new forms of communication and entertainment."
Let's have a look on recent popular news about Intel:
- Intel launched 2nd Generation Intel Core processors (on 18th January, along with the first time Girls' Generation - Visual Dream was showed to public)
- Intel found design flaw in it's Sandy Bridge chipset (on 31st January)
- Intel will launched a new connectivity technology, called: Light Peak (expected on February 2011)
- Additionally, AMD as Intel's direct competitor had a competitive product lines since last year, even though AMD hasn't been able to keep up with Intel, but AMD started to give competition since more and more IT manufacturing companies started to implement AMD products in their product lines.
There are at least two considered innovative things came out from Intel, the 2nd generation processors and the Light Peak connectivity technology. Choosing popular icons to endorse Intel will be beneficial since customers is usually unwilling to change and those new campaigns may help the company to impress all the potential customers which are also expected to accelerate brand image in customers perspective.
Here is the commercial:
Video 2 Intel SNSD Commercial
Note:
Remix version of Girls' Generation - Visual Dream can be found in Aeria Remix
Indonesian government is planning to implement new tax policies. It will tax imported movies and MPA (Motion Picture Association), which represents most hollywood studios, was against it, followed by IKAPIFI (Ikatan Perusahaan Film Impor Indonesia) which imports Bollywood and Chinese Movies. Thus, if nothing changes, no more Hollywood, Bollywood and Chinese movies will be screened in theaters.
This is a move to protect local movies, however this will also have significant impacts because Hollywood is the market leader for theatrical movies and a benchmark in the industry. Some of the notable impacts are:
- Theatres have less options since there are no more Hollywood, Bollywood and Chinese movies
- Less people will go to theatres
Thus,
- Ticket price may increase - business will be bad for
- Movie rental and pirated DVD seller will be more advantageous
- Private studios will be more advantageous
- There is a possibility of increasing demand for cable TV and TV channels through satellite
- Local movies will have more variation (not dominated with only horror and soap opera movies like now)
There is an impact on new policies. it may be negative, but there is still positive impacts as well. Keep positive thinking and make use of this opportunity.
Update(s): 17 June 2011 (3). Minister of Finance has signed a new tariff regulation for imported movies. It will be around IDR 21,000 - 22,000 (about USD 3) per minute per copy. One movie usually has 20 - 40 copies. Two problems still exist:
1. The new regulation still need to be signed by Minister of Justice and Human Right.
2. Two importers/distributors of Hollywood Movies, Camilla and Satrya, have their licenses still suspended.
13 July 2011 (4). PT. Omega was reported to have earned NIK (Nomor Induk Kepabeanan), license number to do export import activities since June 2011, but it hadn't started to import any movies.
24 July 2011 (5). PT. Omega imported 99 copies of Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 2. It will be the first Hollywood Movies from MPAA imported to Indonesia after the incident. The movie was expected to be available in Indonesian cinemas by the end of July 2011.
29 July 2011. Three days before Ramadhan (fasting period for Moslems), Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows (the only Hollywood movie title imported so far) was available in Indonesian cinemas, both in 21 group and Blitzmegaplex group.
While lots of MNCs open more and more branches in Asia, especially Singapore, China, and India, lots of universities become MNC as well. It used to be like this: prospective students go overseas to receive foreign education. Now, foreign education comes to local area and gives education locally blended with foreign taste. Here are list of some foreign universities that set up branches in Asia:
2. India
- Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) (from US)
- Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) (from US)
- Boston University (from US)
- Middlesex University (from US)
- Duke University (from US)
- York University: Schulich School of Business (from Canada)
Different with Singapore and India where lots of the citizens can speak English, in china most of the citizens speak chinese with local dialect. Thus, some foreign universities choose to do a joint program with local universities. Related articles:
- China's B-School Boom
- China's B-School
Note: Cornell University and Columbia University (both of them are from US) also set up a branch in Shanghai
Why do you think it's happening?
Some of the issues to open branches in Asia are:
1. Some universities in developed countries like England and United States faced decreasing number of enrollment every year and increasing acceptance percentage (those universities became less selective, thus the quality of their graduates might decrease).
2. Universities in developing countries have developed significantly, thus they have enough offerings to attract potential students to choose local education rather than foreign education.
3. Some other universities have done it, so the rests should follow or would be left behind the competition.
Some of the issues for not studying overseas are:
1. For postgraduate study, a lot of prospective students have already had a family and it's difficult for them to go abroad for studying or it's ridiculous to leave work for studying overseas.
2. Exchange rate makes overseas education becomes expensive, not only the tuition fee, but also the living cost.
3. Culture barrier, for example it is uncommon for some Taiwanese families to send their daughters to study overseas.
4. The quality of local education is considered acceptable, so there is no need to study overseas.
I wrote this when I realised that a crisis might occur in our country, it’s a crisis of character and icon. I don’t know whether it’s real or it’s just my imagination (hopefully, it’s just my imagination).
I asked this questions to my friends:
“If you are asked to choose an Indonesian icon that you idolise, who are you going to choose and why?”
Some of the positive answers were:
“Ari Wibowo because he is handsome, nice, and seems smart”
“Gus Dur because he made the Chinese New Year as a national holiday”
Some of the negative answers were:
“Nobody because I am nobody”
“Who will you choose? I have no idea”
or similar answers. More people give me a “No” than a name.
I asked myself, who do I mean by an Idol? For me, an idol is someone that I look up to, someone whose life I want to follow, someone that becomes an example for my life (a role model).
In that case:
1. If I think about fictional characters, there are characters like Leigh Ann Tuohy in The Blind Side (a Hollywood movie) or Go Eun Sung in Shining Inheritance (a Korean drama). Both of them has strong characteristics, which make them really inspiring and admirable. In Indonesia, who do we have? Can you see Fitri Rahayu from Cinta Fitri (an Indonesian drama/sinetron) as a role model?
2. If I think about public figures, there are figures like Oprah Winfrey which are really inspirational in her talk shows. If I think who are the most popular these days, two names come up, Jupe (Julia Perez) and DP (Dewi Persik). With all their affairs, could I idolise them? I don't think so. We used to have Aa Gym (Abdullah Gymnastiar), but not anymore. Right now, I couldn't think of anyone else.
Based on thoses cases, we might be in crisis. An Idol crisis.
If you also agree that this is happening and by any chance you know someone from the media/publication, please help our country by sharing this to them, so they will be aware about this as we do, then we may be able to start doing something about it.
It was reported that inflation in Indonesia has reached 21 months high. Last year, the inflation was 6.96, quite high compared to 2.78 in 2009, but still lower than 11.06 in 2008.
Picture 1 Inflation in Indonesia
Inflation means prices for goods and services in general is increasing, in other words, most things become more valuable, except MONEY. Thus, if inflation rate is still increasing or as high, it's better to acquire assets than keep cash in hand and sell the assets when inflation rate has been stabilized to around 2-3% per year.
Now the inflation has been increased to 7.01 (accumulated from 2010). Purchasing power definitely keeps decreasing, thus general consumption is also decreasing. Weak consumption condition and the possibility of increasing borrowing cost due to increasing BI rate make me think that now may not be the right time to establish a new business venture.
