Quora launches Bahasa Indonesia version of platform, marks SEA debut

• Has 200 million unique visitors per month globally
• To focus on growing its local community and contents

US-BASED question and answer (QnA) platform Quora launched a new version of its platform in Bahasa Indonesia (https://id.quora.com), and marked its debut in Southeast Asia (SEA). Quora is already in Japan.

Quora engineering manager Veni Johanna explains that people from countries beyond the US are registering and contributing to its platform, including Indonesia.

“We have over 200 million unique visitors per month, and among them (number undisclosed), there are Indonesian-speaking people who are using Quora in English. Now we are available in Bahasa Indonesia and hope it will increase the participation from local people.”

In April, Quora launched a beta version in Indonesia with a small group of people. In just a few months, the platform has grown with quality content provided by personalities from different sectors such as lecturers, researchers, software developers, CEOs, photographers and editors.

She says that now the platform is open to the public and will be available via a mobile app. It is also available in English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, and Japanese.

On Quora, users can ask questions about any topic. Quora then distributes these questions to people who can provide high quality and useful answers, based on their relevant expertise and experience.

The more a person uses Quora by writing answers, following topics, and following people, the more Quora is able to personalise their experience on the platform.

The platform is able to provide good answers to questions based on the quality of writers on the platform, feedback writers get from others in the community, and product features that ensure credibility.

There is also a policy of using real names on Quora, which increases the level of integrity and trust people have in the answers.

“We combine machine learning and people behind it to filter and check if there is hate speech, spam, plagiarism, and trolling on the platform, which we will omit immediately.”

Veni adds that Quora also offers “evergreen” content which includes canonical questions and emphasis on answers that will be useful forever.

“Frequently asked questions for users will be pinned to their profile page to avoid repetitive content.”

Founded in 2009 by its chief executive officer and co-founder Adam D'Angelo who was a former chief technology officer at Facebook, Quora is an unlisted company valued at over U$1 billion. In April 2017, it raised US$85 million in Series D funding, co-led by Sam Altman of YC Continuity and Collaborative Fund.

Veni explains that the company generates its revenue through advertising. “We monetise through our English platform, but not yet on the Indonesian version because we want to target getting more community involvement and localise its content.”

For Quora Indonesia, there will be a local team who will manage the content on its platform.

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