It's not necessarily about the traffic, Indonesian people would prefer facebook because it enables them to whine, to talk about what they think and do and such. It's what connects friends in seemingly real time. Facebook is perceived more as a personal weblog for Indonesian. Twitter is not quite popular yet, since Indonesian use facebook as twitter as well (and many Indonesian blogs are suffer because of facebook).

Guntar, Jawa Timur, Indonesia.

Spot on. The Friendster to FB transition also proves that the Internet is Dog Years ie. 1 year equals 6 Internet Years. In the social networking space things happen fast but when you multiply by 6 you can see why in less then half a year an entire country can move from one social network to the next. Proving that it Social is not a destination but a dimension. Just using FB connect to share this article my FB community is a win win for both Thomas Crampton's blog (whee I found the video/artice) but also FB.

Was just in Indo and everyone of my wife's family were talking facebook. last time it was friendster. The shift has been sudden

As for buying stuff online Indonesians cant order from many sites due to restricted delivery processes which is due to fraud.

"Cheap BlackBerry knockoffs + large number of people stuck in bad traffic = Growth of mobile Internet"
Jeremy Wagstaff holds the key to the secret of the universe! Bad traffic, that answers practically everything.

Yes, the rates are fairly low, around 10%. Hopefully the new govt administration will soon both increase the rates also promote the usage of internet.
Indonesia has a distinct characteristic, this is something cultural rather than political however; it's accustomed to polarized, centralized authority. By "authority", it's varied from trends, media hype, and so forth. This 10%--from social media users to citizen journalists, you name it--makes up (sometimes even decides for) the rest.

This could be good or bad, depends. Bright side of it is, certain marketing or branding strategy wouldn't have to aim for the majority of numbers, and just get that 10% of the market. Jeremy Wagstaff mentioned "large number of people stuck in bad traffic", he referred to Jakarta, I reckon? That's exactly how the smaller part of local market represent the larger portion.

Another cultural issue, Indonesians are people that go out to shop. Online transaction is not a lifestyle necessity, online marketing in this case is a much more promising hotbed. The opportunity lies while people are going out to shop, they take a stroll (most likely in the mall, as in the video), say hello to neighbors and friends. This is where social media comes into the scene.

Don't have access to statistics required for now, just a personal observation. :)

Regards.

;) as expected. thanks for sharing UR insight. & tweet.

but if thats the case, its more eyeballs, more important.

since my feed is private, pls do follow me @garethwong
I did tweet from my public account though @cxoeurope

had wanted to drop you a line/call when I was last in HK, forgot to do so. sadly.

BR
@GarethWong

@GarethWong
The vast majority of Indonesian Internet users do not purchase anything online. Games, music, chat, surf and email are among the top uses of Internet. Fewer than 4% of Internet users in Indonesia buy something online.

Fascinating indeed

however, do people 'transact much in Indonesia? or mostly for social purposes?
just curious.

and if they do transact, is it mostly on social commentary, or on purchasing of things physical or virtual?

would be great to have some of your insights.

Many thanks.

@GarethWong