E-Commerce Company eBay to Raise its Stake in Telkom’s Metra Plasa
eBay Inc, a US-based global commerce platform and digital payments leader, plans to raise its stake in Indonesian e-commerce firm Metra Plasa from 40 percent to 49 percent. Currently, 60 percent of Metra Plasa is owned by Indonesia's largest telecommunication and network provider Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom). Telkom’s stake will thus decline to 51 percent. In 2012, eBay and Telkom (through Telkom’s subsidiary Multimedia Nusantara) established a joint venture to operate Metra Plasa.
Indra Utoyo, Acting President Director of Telkom, said that there is a possibility that eBay will become the controlling stakeholder in the future.
Before eBay was involved Metra Plasa managed the website www.plasa.com supported by USD $5 million worth of investments conducted by Telkom. However, after eBay became a strategic partner (due to its expertise regarding trading platforms and cross border trading) in 2012, this website changed to www.blanja.com. Since 2012, eBay has injected about USD $9.2 million into Metra Plasa. Currently, the website, which is visited by about 50,000 people per day, has one million listed products.
eBay, established by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and headquartered in San Jose (California), has already acquired various Internet companies such as PayPal in 2002, Craiglist in 2004, Skype in 2005 and Stubhub in 2007.
Online shopping in Indonesia (the e-commerce industry) is expected to continue its rapid growth in the years ahead amid expanding Internet access brought about by rising per capita GDP. Due to economic growth Indonesians' purchasing power has grown rapidly, and - in combination with the popularity of the smartphone - people are increasingly purchasing consumer goods online.
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This is great for the development of ecomerce in Indonesia because Indonesia is an archipelago and so widespread that websites like this will make it easier to shop and purchase