One of Indonesia’s earliest e-commerce platforms, Blanja.com, announced that it has ceased its service on September 1. The platform, which is a joint venture between state-telco Telkom Group and American marketplace giant eBay, has been operating since 2014.
All ongoing transactions made before that date will still be processed, however the company advised merchants to empty their e-wallet credits before September 30.
In an official statement, Telkom said that the shutdown is part of a change in focus to the enterprise market segment. Starting October 1, the company will focus on Pasar Digital (PaDi) UMKM, which was launched on August 17. The platform connects micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) with state-owned enterprises looking to buy their products and services.
“This is also in line with our long-term strategic plan in order to increase the company’s (Telkom) profitability,” said Telkom’s digital director Fajrin Rasyid.
As one of the early e-commerce platforms in the country, Blanja prided themselves in providing local-sourced products to consumers. Users also gained access to products from global eBay merchants on the platform.
However, the company has struggled to compete with new contenders such as Tokopedia and Shopee, which have consistently outranked it in monthly web visits and app downloads, according to data from e-commerce comparison platform iPrice. In Q2 2020, Shopee got more than 93 million visits while Tokopedia came second with 86 million. Blanja, on the other hand, ranked 16th with only 947,500 visits.
