PT Kompas Cyber Media, the company behind Kompas.com, announced an investment in city directory startup Urbanesia.com.
As quoted from Kompas.com, the alliance between Kompas.com and Urbanesia.com is a long-term investment for integrating business and services. Mr Edi Taslim, Vice Director of PT Kompas Cyber Media said that Kompas.com investment in Urbanesia aims to strengthen and develop Urbanesia’s business model. This investment is also to develop products and Urbanesia services becoming the top choice for personal and business.
Urbanesia itself is a directory service that contains a variety of lifestyle information and place of business based on various categories in the city. They also provide facilities for users to write reviews and earn points.
Mr Edi Taslim has actually indicated this cooperation during Jakarta Ventures Nights 2012 event (which was held a few days ago), however he didn’t explain the detail about the partnership. With the appearance of this news, it becomes clear what kind of support will be provided by Kompas.com, at least in the form of investment and integration services although the investment value isn’t mentioned.
Ms Selina Limman, a CEO Urbanesia also revealed that Kompas.com now is now the largest shareholder in Urbanesia.This condition is very interesting, we can see Urbanesia development and what will happen with this service.
Still quoting from Kompas.com, with this alliance Urbanesia will soon launch some services, such as Premium Business Profile, Urbanesia Coupon, Mobile Apps (apart of Android and Nokia like iPhone, BlackBerry and Windows Phone) and launching of Urbanesia.com v2.
As far as I heard Kompas.com also will give attention/focus on startup,in the form of investment or other cooperation. This is also proven by the news release about Kompas investment’s for Urbanesia. Some time ago, Kompas also had held KIAD event.This event supported the startup development.
One thing that is quite interesting is certainly Kompas’ resources. The services integration should be observed. Since 2008 Kompas has been focusing in digital world. They have launched their range of services,from the QR code, AR for their newspaper,digital properties – Kompasiana.com, PasangIklan.com, GramediaShop and various other services.
Urbanesia itself is still listed as one of East Ventures’ portfolio, we will find information about EV position with this Kompas.com investment but Selina said that PT Kompas Cyber Media has bought EV shares on Urbanesia. One thing for sure, a quite long time I didn’t hear a buzz from Urbanesia, in addition to the release of some mobile service. And I think this news could be one reason to look back on what will happen to Urbanesia (and also Kompas.com) in the future.
You can read the full release on the NewsWire @DS and blog post from Urbanesia at this link and other artikel at this link.
