As they recognize the significance of this industry, they are starting to take steps to develop these platforms into social commere structures. What this presents to blogshop owners is that it offers an option for them for growth and legitimacy. Whereas previously blogshops had to convert to shopping carts to gain acceptance, they now can remain hosted on these sites while gaining a measure of recognition as e-commerce destinations as more proper selling tools like shopping carts and payment facilities are enabled. Thus it is possible for blogshops to now be permanently hosted on social sites like this.
From: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/bisindonesia/multiply-indonesia-eyes-more-expansion-in-indonesia/441732
After establishing itself in Indonesia earlier this year, one of the world’s largest social networking sites wants to expand its workforce by four times and bring 100,000 local merchants into the site by the end of this year.
Multiply, which combines social networking and an online marketplace, has about 2 million active users in Indonesia and more than 35,000 merchants on its site. It brings in about 20 million unique visitors each month, about 7 million of which come from Indonesia.
“We just released Multiply Commerce on May 10, and within a week there were already 1,000 transactions happening through our payment gateway,” Daniel Tumiwa, the country manager for Multiply Indonesia, said on the sidelines of the Multiply Commerce launch on Wednesday.
“This year is the time for online transactions to take off in Indonesia,” he said. “On average, we have about 2,000 new merchants every month who upload about 50,000 new products per month.”
Multiply, launched in August 2004, was started as a social networking site for families and friends before Facebook existed.
Once users began utilizing the site to sell their products online, though, it decided to expand into an online marketplace. In September last year, the Myriad International Holdings unit of Naspers Limited acquired a controlling interest in Multiply.
It established a subsidiary in Indonesia last March and currently employs 37 people. The company plans to move to a large office in South Jakarta next week, in line with its plan to hire 150 employees by the end of this year.
Peter Pezaris, co-founder and chief executive of Multiply, visited Jakarta in February and said the US company was committed to make Indonesia its anchor market.
“By next year, Indonesia will be our biggest office, even bigger than the one in the US,” Pezaris said. Multiply’s office in Jakarta is its third after the US and the Philippines.
According to Daniel, more than 90 percent of the transactions in the site took place offline.
“I don’t know exactly how many transactions happened so far, but based on our internal survey, the average value per transaction is about Rp 150,000 [$17.50],” he said.
“One of the keys of ecommerce is trust and recommendations,” said Andy W. Djiwandono, vice president for marketing and business development at Multiply Indonesia. “That is why we established ‘trusted seller.’ ”
Although users can register as members for free, the company provides several options for premium accounts.
“At first I was selling stuff in Multiply just for fun. Within a short period of time, my business grew and now I am more serious about selling baby products and eco-friendly products,” said Anita, one of Multiply’s sellers who joined the site about two years ago.
Most of the sellers on the site, Daniel said, are women and people trying to earn extra income despite already working full-time jobs.
Multiply’s revenue streams come from advertising, premium memberships and commissions for each transaction completed through its payment gateway.
“We charge 3.9 percent for every transaction that is using our shopping cart,” Daniel said, adding that the most popular payment system was KlikBCA.
The site also supports other bank transactions and credit card payments through PayPal.
Another article:
Blogshopping is HUGE in Indonesia, although it is not called blogshopping.
Social shopping site Multiply to relocate its global headquarters to Indonesia
29th January 2012 by Jon Russell
Social shopping site Multiply has announced plans to relocate its global headquarters from Boca Raton, Florida, to Jakarta, Indonesia, according to a report from Daily Social.
The move is a rare example of a company choosing an emerging market over the US, as it is typically made the other way round, but there is much sense to the reshuffle which will bring the company closer to the majority of its users.
The service, which is reportedly the largest of its kind in Southeast Asia, has “more than 100,000 online merchants across the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam”, and CEO Peter Pezaris explains that the move is driven by increased opportunities:
We chose Jakarta because the opportunity is so large. It’s such a fast growing economy. So many people are using Multiply in Indonesia, it’s such an important market for us.Multiple is not new to Southeast Asia and its existing Jakarta office houses more than 50 of its 126 global staff, while it also has a presence in the Philippines. Indonesia is its largest market, as it told the Jakarta Globe, and statistics from last year showed it drew 7 million monthly visitors to its 34,000 Indonesian sellers. These number are now likely to be significantly higher, particularly given that the company saw 2,000 new sellers from Indonesia joining each month.
In addition to the move, which was announced on location in Indonesia, Multiply is giving a nice perk to customers by waiving all shipping cost and transaction fees until March. It also has news for Indonesia, where it is expanding payment options to allow XL Tunai customers to make transactions via mobile operator XL Axiata, and Prima ATMs are also supported.
The company is not shy on making bold moves and it actually began life as a photo sharing social network which rivalled Facebook and others.
On noticing that its personal pages feature were increasingly being used to build online shops, it revamped its offering with the introduction Multiply Marketplace and moved down a completely new avenue as a social shopping service.
It has placed significant emphasis on Indonesia in the past and it ran the beta version of Multiply 5.0 exclusively in the country, before a wider pilot in Southeast Asia preceded the global launch of the enhanced platform in June 2010.
In spite of its pivot, Multiply’s photo sharing service still remains popular and, according to the company, it is the second largest social network in Southeast Asia — behind Facebook, of course — while it has “millions of additional users” in the US, Brazil and India.
The relocation of Multiply’s global office will be completed over the next 12 months, during which a number of personnel and positions will be relocated to Indonesia, the company said.
Image credit: Shutterstock user Russ Beinder
Yet another article on Multiply:
What started as a social networking platform for photo and video sharing has evolved into a social shopping site that connects the sellers in a virtual world with eager spenders. Multiply 5.0, the photo-sharing social network turned robust e-commerce platform, is currently in the works and is being tested in Indonesia.
The beta version of Multiply 5.0 is initially available at Indonesia.multiply.com and according to the Multiply blog, the new platform will integrate an e-commerce catalog store, shopping cart and payment system designed to simplify the process not only for buyers but inventory and order management for sellers as well. Multiply’s high-resolution photo upload facility will still be present.
There is still no official date when Multiply 5.0 will be released to the public, but Multiply Indonesia will put the various facilities and features in the new version to the test in the real world.
Multiply recently expanded in Jakarta, Indonesia, which is expected to be the second largest office after its main headquarters in Florida, USA. Multiply Indonesia has 34,000 sellers network (with 2,000 new sellers every month) and is being graced by 7 million visitors each month.
The beta version of Multiply 5.0 is initially available at Indonesia.multiply.com and according to the Multiply blog, the new platform will integrate an e-commerce catalog store, shopping cart and payment system designed to simplify the process not only for buyers but inventory and order management for sellers as well. Multiply’s high-resolution photo upload facility will still be present.
Multiply recently expanded in Jakarta, Indonesia, which is expected to be the second largest office after its main headquarters in Florida, USA. Multiply Indonesia has 34,000 sellers network (with 2,000 new sellers every month) and is being graced by 7 million visitors each month.
