Erik Meijer is finally appointed as Indosat’s new Chief Commercial Officer, replacing Lazslo Imre Barta. His previous experience with Telkomsel and Bakrie Telecom should be a valuable asset in facing tough competition in the industry, especially to maintain Indosat’s position as the second largest cellular company in Indonesia, in term of number of subscribers.
Indosat is battling against more aggressive XL Axiata, in which headed by former Indosat chief. Aside from ensuring his marketing campaigns work as planned. I have one favor to be executed by Mr Meijer. He should bring Indosat’s mobile payment solution, Dompetku, to the next level. Broader usage and higher incoming revenue for the company.
Dompetku as mobile payment solution has been approved by central bank since 2010. Yet until now, it’s only being utilized as mobile wallet for BlackBerry App World purchases. The cooperation with one national mini market retailer seems not really working. Compared to Telkomsel Cash or XL Tunai, Dompetku pretty much lacks behind, both in term of partners and revenue gained.
Mobile payment currently hasn’t served as operator’s cashcow yet, but the enhancement of RFID/NFC implementation will drive mobile payment as sexy feature for Indonesia’s telecom industry in the next few years.
There are two assets that may help Dompetku to spread effectively. First, Indosat has wide coverage. It has sufficient coverage in Sumatra, Kalimantan, and Sulawesi; these are area where Telkomsel Cash be able to penetrate as mobile payment solution since the availability of banks and ATMs are somewhat limited. Indosat should be able to imitate this move and add some twists to draw more customers.
Second asset is about community. Indosat’s IM3 has large fanbase. It maybe consider as the largest community in telecom industry. mig33 once enjoyed large amount of revenue by utilizing this community, why can’t Indosat do the same thing with its own community? Again, the key is how Dompetku matches consumer’s need and gives incentives for member of the community. If people are able to use Dompetku to pay for electricity bill, groceries, and other micropayment that can be used in daily basis, it will be a killer feature for Indosat.
The question now, could Indosat do better execution for Dompetku under Erik Meijer regime?
