The State of Crowdfunding in Indonesia [Part 1]

Earlier this month, our sister blog, Trenologi, reported some stats regarding crowdfunding site Kickstarter. This post has brought me to finding that the year 2012 has been dubbed as the year for crowdfunding by no other than Forbes itself. Collectively, the crowdfunding industry in the USA has made US $1.5 billion in 2011 and was predicted to finish 2012 generating $2.8 billion according to report by research firm Massolution. This leads me to ask, how is the state of crowdfunding industry here in Indonesia?

The year 2012 saw some big headlines for Indonesia's crowdfunding scene. The biggest one is the successful funding for Atambua 39º Celcius, a movie directed by renowned Indonesian writer and director Mira Lesmana. Posted in Indonesian crowdfunding site Wujudkan.com, the project collected more than the Rp 300 million (approximately $31,071) that it needed.

Another movie that was successfully funded by the public in 2012 was Demi Ucok. The movie, which screened in Indonesian cinemas in January 2013, gathered about Rp 250 million also after seven months of self-organized crowdfunding.

Does this mean that Indonesian crowdfunding industry has finally made it? To answer this question, I take a look at three popular Indonesian crowdfunding sites: BursaIde.com, Patungan.net, and Wujudkan.com.

BursaIde, which was launched in 2011, seems to have gained little traction. While new ideas keep getting posted on the site, there was little to no response to these ideas with the last comment being posted on the site more than a year ago. Out of ten projects in its home page, only three have some (relatively low) progress in their funding. As I dug deeper, out of ten pages of ideas (each page showing five ideas), I could only find one project that had been successfully funded.

Meanwhile, Patungan looks to have fared better. In its "most supported" page, eight out of ten projects have been successfully funded, gaining Rp 125,400,364 ($12,988) in total. That is as much encouraging stats as I can come up with from the site.

Wujudkan does slightly better than the other two. Boosted mostly by Atambua 39º Celcius, the site has collected Rp 416 million ($43,086) from eight projects that have been successfully funded.

Combined, I estimate that the three crowdfunding platforms above have gathered somewhere between Rp 600 million to RP 700 million. This number is relatively small compared to some series A or series B funding in our own startup industry (but this is also another estimate due to the secretive nature of funding in Indonesia).

The question still lingers, what issues need to be resolved to have a better crowdfunding industry in Indonesia? Be sure to read the part two of this article to find my discussion with Mandy Marahimin, CEO of Wujudkan.com on this very subject.