Photo Viewing Service Cooliris on Indonesian Market

Palo Alto based Cooliris has been in the market to serve easy photo viewing among popular social networks. Given that social networks have enormous usage and growth in Southeast Asia, and Indonesia in particular, we've been speaking with Mehereen Agha, Cooliris Community Development Manager via email about its outlook in the region.

Q: How Cooliris sees Southeast Asia market, especially Indonesia, compared to more matured market like USA and East Asia countries?

A: Southeast Asia is a huge market for us given its smartphone and tablet penetration, and the speed and innovation from Asian partners enable us to localise and distribute our application in their core markets. With massive technological advancements in such a short period of time, users now want convenience with just a tap. The growth in the Indonesian market is very fast paced, with the start-up and e-commerce sector booming, users are becoming more mobile savvy. With some reports suggesting that VoIP and chat app usage rate is higher in Indonesia than mature markets like the US and UK, Cooliris eyes Indonesia as one of its key markets that we keep an eye on. Popularity of chat apps such LINE are proof that mobile messaging is key for Indonesian users, hence we want to add a higher dimension to those messaging apps where media meets messaging and mobile. It is this dimension that would add a more comprehensive experience for users that enjoy messaging and chat apps. Hence, Indonesia for us is a key market for user acquisition.

Q: Based on Cooliris statistics, is there any unique behavior from Indonesian users regarding photo viewing and uploading that's captured so far?

A: The Indonesian market has been very receptive to Cooliris. Jakarta is a top 20 city worldwide out of the 16,000 cities where we have active users. Indonesia ranks among top 20 in terms of downloads as well. As a result of the popularity of Cooliris in Indonesia, the app reached #2 in the App Store for our category. The importance of messaging amongst Indonesian users can also be seen through the fact that Indonesia has the greatest adoption of sharing in private conversations in Southeast Asia. 60% of the sharing in the Cooliris app in Indonesia goes towards private conversations. Mobile usage in Indonesia can be judged by the fact that 60% of Indonesian users are on iPhone which is the highest in Southeast Asia. Keeping in line with new technology, Indonesians are always faster in adopting the new updates and iOS versions.

Q: What's Indonesia's position (based on number of active users) in Asia, and Southeast Asia in particular?

A: Indonesia is a great market for Cooliris as it is ranked in one of our top ten countries. Secondly, for active users Indonesia ranks in the top 3 in Southeast Asia

Q: What's the comparison of Cooliris users in Indonesia (in percentage), between iOS users and Android users?

A: The current Cooliris app is on iOS however we do have a gallery app on Android phones that has been very successful, where we have 42.9 million active users. We are also in the process of launching the Android version of the Cooliris app in the market soon.

Q: What's Cooliris' plan to increase its engagement (and number of users) in Indonesia?

A: Going global with Cooliris is a key part of our strategy and as a result we have partnered with big tech names in China and Russia to achieve that goal. Similarly in key markets like Indonesia they way to increase engagement user acquisition would be to secure strategic partnerships with device makers, carriers, internet and mobile companies. Such collaborations will help Cooliris to expand into markets like Indonesia and increase our user base. As a team of 18 collaborators, we leverage international partnerships for growth outside of the US. By working with like-minded international partners, we provide them with two key benefits: (1) enable a stunning and unique media experience around their user content through the Cooliris app and (2) help our partners expand their brand and service internationally with Cooliris' global user base.