DealKeren, Post LivingSocial Acquisition

Located at the XXI Lounge, Plaza Senayan, Jakarta, CEO DealKeren Adrian Suherman announced the current fact owned by DealKeren and the plans that will be made by DealKeren post-acquisition by one of the largest daily deals from the United States, LivingSocial. Previously we reported that LivingSocial acquired DealKeren parent company, Ensogo, based in Thailand and the Philippines, and this is the first step for LivingSocial in Asia. LivingSocial operates in 21 countries on six continents. Previously, LivingSocial competitor, Groupon, has acquired Disdus as part of its expansion in Indonesia.

What are the facts possessed by DealKeren since its inception in August 2010 then? Currently DealKeren claim to be the market leader with a 65% market share daily deals in Indonesia, based on data in May. DealKeren has more than 300 thousand members and more than 300 merchants who are already working together. Currently there are 80 deals with 50 thousand transactions per month, which revenue reached U.S. $ 250 thousand per month and growing. Based on statistics collected by DealKeren, approximately 55% of users are women aged 25-35 years, other than that 70-80% of users live in Jakarta, a natural considering that most of the deals was located in Jakarta.

DealKeren also revealed that Gelatissimo and New Zealand Natural - both are merchants who sell ice cream, are the two "most successful" DealKeren merchants in terms of savings. 50 thousand vouchers are offered at a price tens of thousands by the respective merchants sold as many as nearly 15 thousand vouchers. The value of savings provided by each of them reached almost USD 500 million. Nevertheless, further studies are necessary whether the savings provided to guarantee sustainable revenues.

Then in the future what will be done by DealKeren? The first one is to expand to other cities in Indonesia. Currently DealKeren already has deals in Jakarta, Bandung, Yogyakarta and Surabaya. Next, DealKeren will expand to several cities outside Java, including Medan, Denpasar and Makassar.

The form of DealKeren has begun to imitate ​​LivingSocial values. In addition to LivingSocial logo are perched on each logo DealKeren, DealKeren also featuring background of Indonesia on every page in the website. DealKeren will adopt methods used for developing LivingSocial, which will offer not only deals, but also holiday’s package and family activities. In addition DealKeren also plans to develop a mobile feature called Instant, which later will be made as an application (or mobile web) that uses the site to inform the deals happening around the place (nearby).

DealKeren is also thinking about how users can redeem the voucher much easier. Today we know that the voucher must be printed in advance and it's actually quite a hassle in today's modern era. With these steps, DealKeren target to gain 1 million members by the end of 2011.

When asked about the Rebate Networks, which is also an investor for DealKeren and Ensogo, Adrian express that the Rebate (and Ensogo) will still help DealKeren in terms of management, but Adrian hint that in terms of investment, Rebate is out from DealKeren and Ensogo ownership (exit). Rebate Networks, based in Germany was an investor for DealKeren and Ensogo, which DealKeren is a joint venture between Rebate Networks and Ensogo with initial capital of $ 2 million.

With the DealKeren acquisition by LivingSocial, it’scomplete that Indonesia will become the new battle field for the two giant deals from United States. It will be a major challenge for companies outside the two deals to compete. Maybe we'll find a deals company that die in 2011 due to lack of innovation, but there will be companies capable of evolving rapidly. I am sure that there must be room for other parties to develop, on condition that a continuous innovation has to be done.

This acquisition proves that the market deals in Indonesia are truly sexy in the eyes of foreign investors, but we want to ensure that these services are not only beneficial for users but also for merchants who use it.