 "Indonesia: A nation atwitter")
The defining feature of the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, is indisputably the traffic jam. For much of the day the creaking infrastructure of this city of 10 million people faces almost total gridlock. But there is one unlikely beneficiary of this vehicular somnolence: Twitter. Stranded in stationary cars, or crowded bus stops, Jakarta's residents send out more tweets on average than citizens of Tokyo, London or New York.
According to Semiocast, a social media marketing research firm, Jakarta accounts for 2.4 per cent of the 10.6 billion tweets worldwide. And Jakarta has company from another Indonesian city: Bandung, which ranks sixth on the worldwide Twitter charts, beating Paris and Los Angeles, despite having a population of only around 2.5 million people. Indonesia, as a whole, has the 5th largest number of Twitter users globally.
The country's online sociability isn't restricted to Twitter. It also boasts the fourth highest number of Facebook users in the world. And this despite the fact that Internet penetration in Indonesia remains relatively low, at 24 per cent. However, an enormous 92 per cent of the Internet-accessing population is on Facebook. What's more, the numbers of those getting connected to the web is growing exponentially. Already, the cohort of netizens in Indonesia increased by 163 per cent between 2010 and 2013.
Twitter has spawned whole new professions and vocabulary. It is common for companies to pay "buzzers," people with a substantial Twitter following, tiny fortunes to tweet brand promotions. New professions include buzzer scouts, headhunters who try and find the right fit between companies and haute-twitterati. People who have become famous for nothing much other than amassing followers are known as "selebtweets."
Alexander Thian, a 32-year-old former scriptwriter for local TV soap operas, called sinetron, flicks his fop of peroxide hair to the side and coyly insists he is not a selebtweet. "I am just someone with a lot of followers," he says. Four hundred and thirty five thousand of them to be precise. Thian became active on Twitter in 2010, and when a celebrity writer retweeted one of his posts detailing some behind-the-scenes gossip related to a popular sinetron, he found that he'd gained over 3,000 followers overnight.
Thian says he tweets 50-60 times a day and product placements are a major part of his Twitter activity. Preferring to call himself an "influencer" rather than the standard term, "buzzer," Thain says he endorses products ranging from food to drinks, banks, cars, and travel destinations. He is usually paid around 1 million rupiah ($100) a tweet.
"Twitter has changed my life," gushes Thian and indeed within a few years he has gone from languishing writer churning out formulaic sinetron scripts, to the creative head of a new digital marketing agency, Digital Petrichor.
A single TV commercial can cost a company 300 million IDR ($26,000). The kind of visibility and impact you get for the equivalent amount on social media is far more, explains Thian.
What makes Indonesia different from some other markers is that users overwhelmingly access the Internet via mobile phones, rather than computers. Eighty seven per cent of all tweets are sent from mobile devices. And by 2015, there are expected to be more active SIM cards in Indonesia than there are people, according to a Boston Consulting Group study.
Following hard on the heels of business, are politicians, who are also waking up to the fact that with Indonesia's youthful demographic profile, voters who are active online can be ignored only at peril. It is currently election season in Indonesia with a recently concluded parliamentary poll, and Presidential elections scheduled for July.
Online forums, blogs, websites, mobile apps, Facebook pages and Twitter are abuzz with political debate and repartee. When former President Megawati Sukarnoputri finally announced her party, the PDI-P's, decision to nominate the hugely popular Jakarta Governor, Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, as its presidential candidate, the announcement was first made on Twitter. Apposite, given that Jokowi's popularity is ascribed by many analysts in part to his canny handling of social media.
Yose Rizal, the founder of politicawave.com, which monitors public engagement in politics through social media, says that since they first began monitoring regional elections in 2012, it's apparent that candidates who use social media do better than others.
He points out that when Jokowi, who is today the front runner in the presidential race, ran for the Jakarta governor's post in 2012, he was a little know figure. The incumbent Fauzi Bowo, on the other hand was a well-established politician who was flush with money to boot. However, Fauzi spent his budget on traditional media, while Jokowi, who was cash-strapped, focused on online platforms - launching flash mobs and a One Direction music video parody.
Once in office he has promoted political transparency by using YouTube to publicise plans and post videos of official meetings. One budget meeting has gained over 1.4million views. Jokowi currently has over 1.3 million followers on Twitter.
The Jakarta governor's twitterati status is however dwarfed by the reigning President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who made Twitter history last year when he resorted to the social media platform to make foreign policy. When it came to light, thanks to whistleblower Edward Snowden, that Australia had been tapping his phone, the president immediately tweeted his displeasure at Australian Prime Minister, Tony Abbot's, lack of guilt. Yudhoyono didn't mince his words, saying he "deplored" his Australian counterpart's behaviour and that he was intent on "protesting loudly." So loudly, in fact, that all his 4.7 million followers heard it.
According to Semiocast, a social media marketing research firm, Jakarta accounts for 2.4 per cent of the 10.6 billion tweets worldwide. And Jakarta has company from another Indonesian city: Bandung, which ranks sixth on the worldwide Twitter charts, beating Paris and Los Angeles, despite having a population of only around 2.5 million people. Indonesia, as a whole, has the 5th largest number of Twitter users globally.
The country's online sociability isn't restricted to Twitter. It also boasts the fourth highest number of Facebook users in the world. And this despite the fact that Internet penetration in Indonesia remains relatively low, at 24 per cent. However, an enormous 92 per cent of the Internet-accessing population is on Facebook. What's more, the numbers of those getting connected to the web is growing exponentially. Already, the cohort of netizens in Indonesia increased by 163 per cent between 2010 and 2013.
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Half of the southeast Asian archipelago's 240 million citizens are under the age of 30 and 75 per cent of these access the web through their mobile phones rather than a computer. Add these statistical ingredients together and it becomes clear why Indonesia has social media marketers around the world atwitter with excitement. Facebook, in fact, just opened a branch office in Jakarta last month. And every corporate brand, big or small, has woken up to the fact that in Indonesia, social media is an imperative, rather than a choice.
Twitter has spawned whole new professions and vocabulary. It is common for companies to pay "buzzers," people with a substantial Twitter following, tiny fortunes to tweet brand promotions. New professions include buzzer scouts, headhunters who try and find the right fit between companies and haute-twitterati. People who have become famous for nothing much other than amassing followers are known as "selebtweets."
Alexander Thian, a 32-year-old former scriptwriter for local TV soap operas, called sinetron, flicks his fop of peroxide hair to the side and coyly insists he is not a selebtweet. "I am just someone with a lot of followers," he says. Four hundred and thirty five thousand of them to be precise. Thian became active on Twitter in 2010, and when a celebrity writer retweeted one of his posts detailing some behind-the-scenes gossip related to a popular sinetron, he found that he'd gained over 3,000 followers overnight.
| POWER OF 140 CHARACTERS |
Jokowi, the front runner in Indonesia’s presidential race, elections for which were held last week, has over 1.3 million followers on Twitter. Facebook opened a branch office in Jakarta last month. Every corporate brand, big or small, has woken up to the fact that in Indonesia, social media is an imperative, rather than a choice. Here’s why Indonesia has become a social media hub.
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Thian says he tweets 50-60 times a day and product placements are a major part of his Twitter activity. Preferring to call himself an "influencer" rather than the standard term, "buzzer," Thain says he endorses products ranging from food to drinks, banks, cars, and travel destinations. He is usually paid around 1 million rupiah ($100) a tweet.
"Twitter has changed my life," gushes Thian and indeed within a few years he has gone from languishing writer churning out formulaic sinetron scripts, to the creative head of a new digital marketing agency, Digital Petrichor.
A single TV commercial can cost a company 300 million IDR ($26,000). The kind of visibility and impact you get for the equivalent amount on social media is far more, explains Thian.
What makes Indonesia different from some other markers is that users overwhelmingly access the Internet via mobile phones, rather than computers. Eighty seven per cent of all tweets are sent from mobile devices. And by 2015, there are expected to be more active SIM cards in Indonesia than there are people, according to a Boston Consulting Group study.
Following hard on the heels of business, are politicians, who are also waking up to the fact that with Indonesia's youthful demographic profile, voters who are active online can be ignored only at peril. It is currently election season in Indonesia with a recently concluded parliamentary poll, and Presidential elections scheduled for July.
Online forums, blogs, websites, mobile apps, Facebook pages and Twitter are abuzz with political debate and repartee. When former President Megawati Sukarnoputri finally announced her party, the PDI-P's, decision to nominate the hugely popular Jakarta Governor, Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, as its presidential candidate, the announcement was first made on Twitter. Apposite, given that Jokowi's popularity is ascribed by many analysts in part to his canny handling of social media.
Yose Rizal, the founder of politicawave.com, which monitors public engagement in politics through social media, says that since they first began monitoring regional elections in 2012, it's apparent that candidates who use social media do better than others.
He points out that when Jokowi, who is today the front runner in the presidential race, ran for the Jakarta governor's post in 2012, he was a little know figure. The incumbent Fauzi Bowo, on the other hand was a well-established politician who was flush with money to boot. However, Fauzi spent his budget on traditional media, while Jokowi, who was cash-strapped, focused on online platforms - launching flash mobs and a One Direction music video parody.
Once in office he has promoted political transparency by using YouTube to publicise plans and post videos of official meetings. One budget meeting has gained over 1.4million views. Jokowi currently has over 1.3 million followers on Twitter.
The Jakarta governor's twitterati status is however dwarfed by the reigning President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who made Twitter history last year when he resorted to the social media platform to make foreign policy. When it came to light, thanks to whistleblower Edward Snowden, that Australia had been tapping his phone, the president immediately tweeted his displeasure at Australian Prime Minister, Tony Abbot's, lack of guilt. Yudhoyono didn't mince his words, saying he "deplored" his Australian counterpart's behaviour and that he was intent on "protesting loudly." So loudly, in fact, that all his 4.7 million followers heard it.