KinerjaPay aims to be an omni-channel business

  • Targets to achieve US$752,842 in transaction volume per month this year
  • The first Indonesian e-commerce player to be listed in the US

 

KinerjaPay aims to be an omni-channel business

 

INDONESIA-based KinerjaPay provides digital payment solutions to Brick & Mortar businesses in Indonesia and Southeast Asia (SEA) in order to promote the growth of e-commerce by providing users and merchants with a safe and secure shopping experience online.

It provides users with an e-wallet service for bill transfers and offers the convenience of topping-up phone credit, in consideration for the payment of royalties.

KinerjaPay chairman Edwin Witarsa Ng (pic, above) tells Digital News Asia (DNA) that he started this company because of the low bank account and credit card penetration in Indonesia.

“Indonesia is different. We are a third world country where for e-commerce to grow exponentially, people must have credit cards and bank accounts.”

Having seen the boom of e-commerce since the dotcom era in 1999 in the US, Ng says that many small players died and big players survived to become giants.

“After changes in the market in 2003, e-commerce in the US started to pick up and get back on its  feet again with the support of a better logistics ecosystem,” he adds.

KinerjaPay aims to be an omni-channel businessNg says that something similar happened again in China in 2007 with giant players such as Alibaba and Tencent.

“E-commerce in China has been slowly growing since then. I have seen what happened before. It is a cycle and history will repeat itself but this time in Asia. We need to prepare ourselves,” he says.

Ng started a web development company in 2007 and acquired a data centre after building a pool of customers.

“After we had the infrastructure in 2013, we noticed that people were starting to shop online. And we thought that the biggest problem in e-commerce is payment because bank account and credit card penetration is still low in developing countries such as in Indonesia,” he explains.

Starting in 2015 on a small scale, KinerjaPay only facilitated payment processes as a “medium” between buyers and sellers.

“People started to shop through our platform. After getting some traction, we pitched to find partners,” he explains.

Ng felt that if his company were to grow as a startup, it needed funding and he met Dony Rahardjo who was inspired by KinerjaPay’s concept and joined the company.

Ng also met a partner with a connection to the New York Stock Exchange who was interested in KinerjaPay.

“In startup ecosystem, it all depends on the people that we meet in the network. I feel fortunate that I met the right people.”

In December 2015, PT Kinerja Indonesia put its intellectual property in the US by forming KinerjaPay Corp and listing it on the OTCQB [the venture stage marketplace for smaller or early-stage companies that report to a US regulator] market in February 2016.

“We are the first Indonesian e-commerce company to be on the OTCQB and we are a public company now. To have that opportunity is a one in a million.”

Ng says most startups think of getting fund from VCs, but that is sometimes equal to cutting off their limbs for the VCs.

“In our case, because the initial funding came from me, it was fresh. To be listed in the US, I had to invest US$1 million to US$1.5 million subject to qualifications. It took us eight months to complete the process,” he explains.

The benefit of getting listed on the OTCQB market is the ability to explore the US market and raise funds as a public company.

“Getting listed means we have to perform and commit to reporting everything. It has to be transparent,” Ng emphasises.

Omni-channel business

KinerjaPay aims to be an omni-channel businessNg’s ultimate goal now that he is offering payment solutions to boost the Indonesian e-commerce ecosystem is to reach as many other services as he can.

“After we have the right payment gateway, we will be able to move on to other services such as KinerjaMall, KinerjaTravel, and KinerjaGames.

“We will focus on the brand Kinerja which means the performance or outlook of something. We want to spin off and branch out into as many products as we can by using our brand Kinerja. KinerjaPay is our holding company for other Kinerja products. Everything that we do will be through KinerjaPay as a checkout point.”

Ng is targeting the younger generation for the KinerjaPay mobile app.

“People buy things online and play games. We offer a simple gamification system for users to get rewards. We transform our users by enhancing their lifestyle in the digital world.”

Ng also encourage startups to work and partner with KinerjaPay

“For a startup to survive, it has to evolve by adapting as user behaviour changes over time. Kinerja used to only be a medium for e-commerce but now it is an omni-channel platform that can be used for e-commerce, play, and to collect points for anything.”

Ng wants KinerjaPay to connect to everyone. If the company is only developing internally, it will not be able to grow as they are not connected to the outside world.

“We are always open to partnerships with merchants or even startups. We can give them business and they can use our platform for their sales,” he says.

The company has adopted a B2B and B2C businesses model to generate revenue. Ng says that KinerjaPay only takes 2% of every transaction.

“We have multiple sources to boost our revenue because we also provide other payment services such as credit card and PUB bill payments.”

He targets to achieve 10 billion rupiah (USS752,842) in transaction volume per month this year with current 130,000 users and over 10 thousand mobile app downloads.

KinerjaPay currently sees 1,000 to 1,500 daily transactions. It offers instant transactions in partnerships with third party banks. Users can top up their balance in KinerjaPay through bank transfers, vouchers, PayPal and other ways.

“We also want to collaboration to work with other countries in terms of payment systems next year. We would like to provide facilities for workers who work abroad to be able to send money back home using our platform. We are exploring the options.”

Based in Medan, KinerjaPay will focus on Jakarta this year and further develop their mobile app.

Ng says his company facees two major challenges in marketing strategy and technical integration.

“As a tech company, we have to constantly develop ourselves especially in terms of technical integration. For marketing, we have to get a good team to penetrate the market.”

To Ng, good marketing strategy plays a crucial role in his business.

“KinerjaPay is not a very large company, and although we are listed, in order to fight, we need to have ammunition, and it is our marketing strategy.

Ng believes that using social media as a communication tool works better than spending money for advertising through big media.

“After applying advertisement strategy through social media, we hope to see more traction by the second half of this year,” he concludes.

 

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