Cheetah Mobile Looks for More Local Partners, Opens Office in Indonesia

One of China-based utility app developers, Cheetah Mobile (CM), has officially opened an office in jakarta since last May. The office is dedicated for better access to local partners and customers. The plan is that while partnering with local businesses, CM will also look to collaborate with phone producers as well as local startup community in Indonesia.

CM has globally had around 443 million monthly active users per March 2015, with 13 million of them came from Indonesia, Cheetah Mobile’s General Manager for International Business Development Johnny Li claimed. And CM is not stopping there.

Li further admitted that Indonesia is one of CM’s most potential markets in term of smartphone app development, hence the office in Indonesia. The vast smartphone penetration, added with tons of startups’ success stories available (that of Tokopedia and Go-Jek), based CM’s decision upon establishing an office in the country.

Cheetah’s strategy to play at Indonesia’s market

Within the past year, Cheetah Mobile has established partnership with five OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) in Indonesia. For this year’s second semester, CM will focus more on collaborating with local mobile ecosystem, including establishing partnership with local app developers and holding seminar on cellular internet trend at a number of universities.

“We think that the ecosystem Indonesia is currently exploding. This is a very positive thing for local developers. [...] This what makes us confident to establish an office in the country, we want to collaborate with local app developers, educational institutions, and even public sector, so that we may contribute in the development of local startup and app ecosystem,” Li stated, as cited from SWA.

Regarding the collaboration, Li revealed that CM is currently contacting around twenty local partners for collaboration, and Advan is one of them. Moreover, CM has also had a certain project with a local startup to create an app with local taste.

“At the moment, we are collaborating with a number of mobile app developers, including e-commerce, social app, and mobile games. Along with the growth of local ecosystem, we’re pretty sure to collaborate with a couple more companies in the near future,” Li stated.

Cheetah Mobile’s plan and target for Indonesia

In general, CM has four main plans for Indonesia, Li claimed. First, to collaborate with local smartphone producers for a better performance of cellphone devices. Second, to collaborate with local app developers, especially in regards to establishing a connection with e-commerce players and app developers, by investing at local startups. Third, to collaborate with VCs, local operators, and local startups. Last but not least, to share CM’s vast experience in cellular internet industry to local audience.