THE EMERGENCE & IMPLICATIONS OF GRAB & GOJEK IN INDONESIA

ONAT KIBAROGLU NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE THE EMERGENCE & IMPLICATIONS OF GRAB & GOJEK IN INDONESIA TODAY’S AGENDA: EXPOSING THE CONTEMPORARY EMERGENCE & IMPLICATIONS OF DIGITAL TRANSPORTATION PLATFORMS IN INDONESIA ‣ Condition 1: Street Economy ‣ Condition 2: Infrastructural Gridlock ‣ Condition 3: Cheap Smartphones ‣ Condition 4: Cheap Motorbikes ‣ Condition 5: Precarious Labour ‣ Condition 6: Venture Capital & SWFs STREET ECONOMY Condition 1 LAX PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION ▸ Thriving ‘street economy’ ▸ Grab & Gojek as digital translations of the socioeconomic infrastructure already in place ▸ The practice of ojek driving is based on many layers of informalities. Neither the national nor local governments ever consider ojek as a formal activity on paper — nevertheless this practice is seen both as a solution for urban mobility problems, and as a robust means for job creation INFRASTRUCTURAL GRIDLOCK Condition 2 INFRASTRUCTURAL GRIDLOCK ‣ Approximately 45% of metropolitan Jakarta is unreachable by a public transportation stop, which represents an area covering about 300 million square meters out of a total of 655 million square meters of metropolitan area ‣ The key to open this gridlock is the ojek — the motor-taxis that flow through cars stuck on expressways like water flows through seemingly merged layers of stone. CHEAP HARDWARE Conditions 3 & 4 CHEAP HARDWARE ‣ Prices and payment options for motorbikes and smartphones tend to be e accessible for ojek drivers, as they typically drive rented second hand bikes from familiar bike-shops in any urban setting. ‣ In 2013, an estimated 24% of mobile phone users in Indonesia owned a smartphone (which represented around 25 million people out of 100 million total users) and this figure doubled exponentially to 53% by 2017, representing more than 80 million smartphone users, most of which reside in urban settings PRECARIOUS LABOUR Condition 5 PRECARIOUS LABOUR ‣ Labour pool of informal mobility in urban (or peri-urban dwellers, ‘orang desakota’); built upon a vast supply of domestic migrants, moving in typically a circular or seasonal urban-rural migration chains. ‣ Go-Jek and Grab brings down the entry barrier for finding a job in a new setting, as the application lessens importance of local geographical and traffic related knowledge (due to the widespread prevalence of GPS systems on mobile phones) and social capital (the ability to rapidly sign up for a job). “…WE WEAR THE BIKES LIKE WE WEAR SHOES (…SEPEDA SEPERTI SEPATU)”. Bintan Pengojek Condition 6 ‣ VC & SWFS ‣ ‘STATE VENTURED ENTERPRISE’ ‣ Implication 1: Accident Insurance ‣ Implication 2: Enhanced Collective Action ‣ Implication 3: Enhanced Income ‣ Implication 4: Wider Social Network ‣ Implication 5: Reduces Work-for-Labour ‣ Implication 6: Individualisation of Transportation ACCIDENT INSURANCE Implication 1 ENHANCED COLLECTIVE ACTION Implication 2 ENHANCED INCOME Implication 3 WIDER SOCIAL NETWORK Implication 4 REDUCTION OF WORK-FOR-LABOUR Implication 5 1. Socialising to find a job in a new setting 2. Training & gadgets 3. Searching for clients 4. Bargaining with client INDIVIDUALISATION OF TRANSPORTATION Implication 6