eBay to Own More of Metra Plasa’s Shares

E-commerce titan eBay aims to add acquire more Metra Plasa’s shares. Metra Plasa, a joint venture between eBay and Telkom which manages Blanja, was re-spawned in 2012, when eBay decided to save the startup from collapsing by injecting $9,2 million to it. The acquirement will change the ownership composition, from 40% eBay 60% and Telkom to 49% eBay and 51% Telkom.

The acquirement will be eBay’s third throughout the history, after the ones in South Korea and India.

Telkom’s acting CEO Indra Utoyo, as being cited from Berita Satu, stated, “eBay may add more to 49%. They have also the right to be the majority. There’re stages to reach it, and they want to do it fast. However, I have yet been able to disclose about this.”

He continued, “So far, e-commerce still contributes small to Telkom’s revenue. We predict that the sector may contribute to 10 percent of our revenue in the next two to three years.”

Apparently, eBay will use Blanja as their vehicle to compete in Indonesian vast growing e-commerce market. A data from eMarketer suggests that the B2C e-commerce industry in Indonesia grew up to 45.1% and will always be above 20% during the next three years.

Blanja, which was launched just yesterday, is mainly managed by Telkom’s subsidiary, Telkomsel, and has had 1 million registered items, 600 sellers, and 50.000 daily visitors.