Earlier this month, Tech in Asia reported that Path was opening an office in Jakarta that would house a full-time staff member dedicated to growing the social network in Indonesia. The archipelago represents the company’s strongest market, and Path’s new focus on Indonesia comes at a time when the firm is struggling to regain market traction and relevance in most other parts of the world.
Path seemed to be in crisis last fall when it lost several senior executives, fired 20 percent of its staff, and then raised US$25 million in much-needed funding from Indonesia’s Bakrie Group in a follow-on round, with contributions from Indonesia’s Bakrie Group. PandoDaily called Path’s popularity in Indonesia “the kiss of death,” writing:
Path today is largely irrelevant to mainstream US consumers and has become an afterthought among Silicon Valley investors and employees [...] The best thing you can say about Path today is it’s huge in Indonesia. The worst: The Company seems to have accepted this as its fate. It may be the beginning of the end for a company that was once offered $125 million to sell to Google [...]
From what we know, it’s true that Path has failed to live up to its initial hype after launching in November 2010. While it’s easy to thumb one’s nose at a golden boy turned one-market-wonder, the truth is that Indonesia is a great country for any startup to have a foothold in. It’s one of the world’s most promising emerging tech markets, and according to the international technology investment advisory firm Redwing, Indonesia is the world’s fourth largest market for Facebook, fifth largest for Twitter, and 12th for LinkedIn. Its startup ecosystem is on the rise too.
Making friends
Tech in Asia caught up with Morin this week via email to better understand how he plans to leverage Path’s Indonesian user base. While Morin’s replies were brief, he reinforced how Path has more than four million users in Indonesia, which is about a fifth of its global user base of 23 million. Morin didn’t mention how many of the archipelago’s users are active each month on Path, though he did reveal last month that Path’s total daily active user base is just five million.
For a sense of scale, popular messaging app Line, which also includes a Path-like mini social network, has 30 million registered users in Indonesia, though the Japanese company has not said how many of those active users are.
“I believe that Indonesia is at the forefront of social media trends, and often paves the way for the rest of the world,” he explains. “Our users say that they like the more exclusive, personal connections [...] and the unique features – like music moments – are really popular in the region.”
Morin claims that apart from appointing a new community manager, the company is “investing in partnerships” with key local players like Telkomsel, XL Axiata, and Indosat, and of course its investor, Bakrie Group. He adds, “We continue to see strong positive feedback from our users in Indonesia every day, including continued user growth and record highs for moments shared [...] the positive feedback we hear far outweighs any negative [...]”
Indonesia wins no matter what
To date, US$77 million has been invested into Path, according to CrunchBase. If Path continues to grow in Indonesia, its success could bode well not just for itself, but for Indonesia as a whole. Foreign startups looking to expand might follow Path’s example and target Indonesia directly and aggressively, rather than make half-hearted plays to “enter Southeast Asia” without really understanding the numerous diverse markets that constitute the region. Meanwhile, as a company with roots in Silicon Valley, Path could make a great symbolic calling card for foreign investors looking toward Indonesia for deals, but who don’t know much about the market and its risks. Of course, Path will have to continue to grow in Indonesia in order for this to happen. That’s what the office is for.
Morin’s entrance into Indonesia’s market can already be seen as a good thing for the local ecosystem as it will mean that Jakarta now has the attention of Path’s current investors, which feature some of the world’s most famous names in venture capital such as Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Greylock Partners, First Round Capital, and Index Ventures. Any way you cut it, Dave Morin in a batik shirt, holding a Bintang beer is a win-win situation for an app and a market that each face challenges as they strive to grow.
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