Tokopedia, JNE Offer New Alternative Payment Service
Jakarta. Homegrown e-commerce company Tokopedia and logistics firm JNE announced on Monday (16/10) a new payment service for Tokopedia customers available at JNE branches all over Indonesia.
"This new payment channel is especially useful for people who don't have a bank account," William Tanuwijaya, co-founder and chief executive of Tokopedia, said in a statement.
Tokopedia customers will be able to pay for their purchases at 200 JNE representative offices throughout the archipelago. After each transaction on Tokopedia, the customer can go to the nearest registered JNE office to make the payment.
"We will also offer added values to customers and small-medium enterprises," M. Feriadi, JNE's president director, said.
Those added values include workshops to familiarize small businesses with the new service, which should help them attract more customers. The workshops are currently offered in 18 cities, including Banda Aceh, Tanjungpandan in Bangka Belitung and Jayapura in Papua.
E-commerce has become one of the most promising industries in Indonesia. Communication and Information Minister Rudiantara said the industry is expected to rake in $130 billion by 2020.
This is especially because Indonesia is a "mobile-first country" where most people use smartphones to go online. There were more than 325 million cellular subscriptions in the country in 2014, many more than its total population of 250 million.
Nevertheless, according to the World Bank's Global Findex Database, only 36 percent of adults in Indonesia in 2014 owned bank accounts.
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