Detikcom, who had just shaken online universe in Indonesia with its acquisition by Para Group, again presents a new application. Available only for iPad, DetiKios is SCOOP competitor and Wayang Force to bring books and magazines digitally. Currently only 7 books that go into DetiKios and can be downloaded free of charge, but Budiono Darsono tweet as Detikcom editor in chief who invites all parties to work together, indicate that DetiKios is currently looking for a niche in this market.
DetiKios gave business schemes 30% for Apple’s, 30% for Detikcom and 40% for publishers. Launched to coincide with the 13th anniversary celebrations of Detikcom, DetiKios is compatible with the earliest iPad type (operating system version 3.2)
Reading books or magazines on the iPad is easy. Simply click and pay less than $ 5, those magazine or book are ours. No more searching for pet-looking magazine at kiosks or supermarkets. Indeed, it is not easy to leave the pleasure of flipping pieces by pieces of paper while sipping coffee, but of course the digital era has provided a powerful alternative in reading, let alone with go green jargon that supports the reduction of paper usage.
Now there are two major players in this segment, SCOOP of Apps Foundry and Wayang Force from Phasedev. Another alternative is Gramedia Lite magazine containing magazines published by Kompas-Gramedia Group. It turned out that user interest in iPad in Indonesia (and the Indonesian lived overseas) is quite large, as evidenced by the increasing number of magazines that goes into each product listing – even though in general they have much in common. Inevitably, as I’ve reviewed before, now it begins as a competition to interest tablet users to use it as a more optimal reading media.
The thing that disturbed me is the lack of incentive publishers (or even application developers) to increase the use of this application as a means of reading a book or magazine. The price offered, although it’s much cheaper, not much different than the printed version. Isn’t there a very large cost savings due to this digital distribution? First there should be no business of printing and the printing press, second we do not need physical distribution businesses, and third there is no fee for distribution to various regions. All it takes only an iPad and Internet connection.
In my opinion, this application should reflect to Zinio as the same kind of media pioneers. Zinio managed to increase the readership with lucrative offers. Subscription for 3 months, 6 months or 12 months edition with a very low price can certainly be a sweetener. Opportunities like this that actually should be considered by local publishers to increase the readership. If it increasingly difficult to attract people subscribe to the print media, why not begin to shift the strategy to digital media?
Although Detikcom is a large media syndication, it doesn’t mean they succeed with digital campaigns. Let’s look at DetikDeal who was not yet able to compete with Disdus or DealKeren. We await a breakthrough in DetiKios to compete and provide something different in the competition for media applications and digital books magazines in Indonesia.
