DNA on BFM: Indonesia’s Telkom on the offensive

By Karamjit Singh April 21, 2016

Local content key to unlocking value for iflix and Hooq
Physical gadget stores comfortably dealing with e-commerce wave

DNA on BFM: Indonesia’s Telkom on the offensive ONE of the nice aspects of doing a live radio show is how the conversation can take an unexpected turn away from stories Digital News Asia (DNA) has written about.

And that is what happened on today’s Tech Talk show on BFM Radio with presenter Freda Liu.

We brought a pre-show conversation on air and it was about how strange I felt last night when I actually walked into a camera store in a mall in Petaling Jaya to buy a digital SLR camera with video recording capabilities.

It immediately struck me that I should be buying the camera online, but there I was, at the recommendation of DNA personal tech editor Ajith Ram. I shared with Freda my conversation with the store assistant who sold me – and upselled – the camera and two other products.

The store visit drove home the reality to me that 98% of retail buying in Malaysia is still done through physical channels.

And that I should not be surprised that even a gadget shop that has to earn at least RM25,000 (about US$6.5K) a month in profits to pay off its onsite operational costs, can still survive in this increasingly digital world.

On the matter of survival, we also spoke about MOL Global’s announcement that it will be delisted from Nasdaq, and whether it will have any impact on the tech ecosystem in South-East Asia.

The fact that we also talked about Dubai-based private equity player Abraaj being the lead investor in the US$30-million investment raised by Singapore-based last-mile logistics startup Ninja Van, shows that sentiment has not been and will not be hurt.

But I bet Netflix is hurt, or angry at the least, as we spoke about how the incumbent fixed line player in Indonesia, PT Telkom Indonesia (Telkom), fresh from blocking Netflix on its services in Indonesia, has now entered into a partnership with rival Malaysian service iflix.

As a result, the iflix video-on-demand (VOD) service will be made available via Telkom’s 1.2 million IndiHome fibre broadband customers.

For iflix, being able to offer local content is a key value proposition for them in partnering with Telkom. This local content angle has become the key differentiator for iflix as it expands from one country to another.

It is not rocket science though, as even Singapore-based Hooq, which entered into an Indonesian content agreement last week, highlighted this as its key selling point too.

Do check out the podcast for all these stories and also about why I think PropertyGuru is making a big deal of it being the No 1 property portal in South-East Asia. Click here or the link below: