The State of Crowdfunding in Indonesia [Part 2]

In the first part of this story, I analyzed the state of crowdfunding industry in Indonesia by examining three popular crowdfunding sites in this country. At the end of that post, I came to a conclusion that the size of crowdfunding industry is still relatively small compared to the whole startup scene in Indonesia. In this part, I wanted to try to find an answer to the question asked in part one, "what issues need to be resolved to have a better crowdfunding industry in Indonesia?"

Mandy Marahimin, CEO of Wujudkan.com, explained to me that there are three major issues that need to be addressed. First and foremost is trust. She said, "a lot of Indonesians still have yet to trust the Internet to facilitate financial transactions". Even for those who are comfortable with online transaction, Mandy added, trusting a total stranger with executing a project is another problem compounding the issue.

The presentation of projects in Indonesia's crowdfunding platforms is also another hurdle faced by the industry. Mandy believes that many project owners have not tried their best to present how interesting their projects are and I second this notion. Having explored many pages in BursaIde.com, Patungan.net, and Wujudkan.com for this post, I can say that a lot of projects are presented with minimal effort. Project owners often just post a description and a cover image for their projects. I rarely saw a project equipped with demo videos that may have been the norm in foreign crowdfunding platforms.

Lastly, campaigning on projects have not always been conducted properly by many project owners. Marahimin said, "many project owners seem to think that tweeting once or twice about their project will set things rolling".

She noted, every project that had been successfully funded through Wujudkan.com has always been campaigned for relentlessly through multiple communication channels. She added, "it is a crowdfunding platform, to get funded, of course you have to gather the crowd first".

Interestingly, she did not find payment method as big of a hurdle as she thought it would be. She informed me that there is only a tiny fraction of fund that failed to be transferred to project owners after being pledged.

To address these issues,Wujudkan has been advising project owners to be as clear and accountable as possible to their audience. Wujudkan has also been preparing materials to educate its members with. The folks at Wujudkan hope that in the future, they can educate the public more about skills needed to conduct a crowdfunding campaign.

I myself hope that the crowdfunding industry can catch up with the whole startup industry in Indonesia soon. It has been a proven working alternative to fund projects in some developed countries. I believe, when crowdfunding has gained its foothold, it can provide Indonesia with a more vibrant startup ecosystem.