Rocket Internet set to bring AirBnB clone Wimdu to Indonesia

Wimdu Indonesia, a clone of AirBnB from Rocket Internet, appears to start preparing its operation in Indonesia. Even though it looks as though it's still using the same template as Wimdu in other countries, some displayed properties have showed signs that a few people have booked a place through the service.

Wimdu, with the tagline “travel like a local”, offers a different experience for you who like to travel. Wimdu makes it easy for you to find lodgings other than hotels at your holiday destination. Whether it’s an apartment, a house or a private room, you can get a cheaper price than staying in a hotel even though the price may be depending on your choice of place. In addition, the chance to interact with property owner gives you a chance to get tips which enables you to roam your holiday destination in different ways.

Aside from Indonesia, according to GigaOm, Wimdu also operates in 42 other countries in the world. Other than Rocket Internet’s product operating globally like Pinspire, Wimdu is a Rocket Internet product than covers most countries in the world. Today, Wimdu in Indonesia is arguably not complete. As far as I could tell, the search results only displayed Indonesian cities already well known overseas such as Denpasar, Jakarta and Yogyakarta. Moreover, the search on Wimdu US and Wimdu Indonesia still display the same result. Other than the difference in co.id and .com domain, it seems that there is no difference between Wimdu Indonesia and Wimdu US.

Almost a year ago, DailySocial wrote about the possibility of AirBnB clones in Indonesia. If Wimdu service is really going to be localized and maintained speficially for Indonesia, will this kind of business model be really successful in Indonesia?

Rocket Internet is a company originated from Berlin, German which do cloning of business model of startups and localization of said business models. Examples of its products that have been available in Indonesia are Pinspire, Lazada, Zalora and FoodPanda.