I couldn't imagine doing something like this in the Philippines, which I'm guessing is much like Indonesia.<p>Nobody has credit cards to buy anything online. Credit card alternatives haven't gained traction. People use cheap alternatives to Western Union to send money.<p>Nobody surfs the web except at internet cafes. And at internet cafes it's either FB or homework. Nobody aimlessly browses when they are dishing out money every hour.<p>Nobody uses apps. Even those with smart phones only use FB, Instagram, games and a handful of other messaging apps. Even if they did want to use apps, cheap smart phones are out of resources after installing FB and the rest of the above mentioned.<p>No matter the phone, everyone uses SMS.<p>The postal system is shady. I never order anything online. I don't even have a proper address. I don't know how the postal system is able to deliver anything.<p>There are exceptions to all of the above and these are likely your target market since they likely have money. But this is a small percentage.<p>And speaking of money. Nobody has that either.<p>I noticed the post mentions there are tons of Instagram shops. I have no experience with this, but the number of shops seems irrelevant to me. Anyone can start an Instagram shop, post pictures once in a while and largely be invisible. It seems that much more important would be the above logistical issues which would also be important in Indonesia.<p>I imagine people selling through Instagram are much like the street vendors. They see no problem with being the 4th guy within an hour trying to sell you the exact same things as the 3 guys ahead of him while you are trying to eat a meal and drink some beers. They just don't try very hard. But any money beyond whatever income they have is better than nothing.<p>A place like the Philippines is all about improvisation. I don't see how you could improve much on the Instagram / FB shop model. In the vast majority of cases, there is probably nothing there to improve because there is no activity. For those who do get it to work, it's probably good enough.
> This just sounds so wrong to me. If you have a good product and it brings value, then others should be able to value it by paying you back for your product or services. Period.<p>I completely understand this philosophy, but an attempt at building a two-sided market place is very likely going to require outside investors. This opinion that you need to be profitable from day one has been proven wrong repeatedly and while some 'unicorns' will fail or become less than worth $1bn, their achievements are still very real.<p>It is 100% OK to want to build a business, but entrepreneurs should be flexible enough to understand when it is appropriate to raise money, or make a product that does not generate profit up front.<p>For the record, I also attempted to create a two-sided market and I also failed. It was super painful and I hope you move on quickly with some really solid lessons learned.
Loved the article. I do not agree with the assessment that Silicon valley startups compete based on better products. In fact, it's quite the opposite. All the popular ones you have heard of have taken large amounts of money and subsidize their products a great amount. If you are a less funded startup, it is impossible to complete in such a scenario. In fact, you absolutely have to get lots of funding first, you have no choice.<p>So yeah, you have the same problem everywhere and not just indonesia. At the end of the day, all is fair in love, war and business.
I am a bit surprised that the article doesn't have any introspection about knowing the market (or not). It seems like the reasoning was: we want some money; women have money; women buy clothes; let's do fashion. It doesn't seem like there was much of a value proposition for the customer. Maybe the customer <i>likes</i> browsing Instagram. Maybe the customer asks all these questions (stupid questions as well as clarifying questions) to gauge how quickly a return would be dealt with if desired, to establish some info about company knowledge and responsiveness. (Buying clothes online is risky in terms of fit and fabric quality, especially with resellers.) How could a startup cater to the features of the marketplace instead of fighting them?
To the author: I really respect you for building a startup back home but this article feels more like a rant all over the place though.<p>It also sounds like you don't really know the market in Indonesia and you're trying to replicate what you know about US/Silicon Valley market back home as-is and didn't achieve the result you were hoping for (I haven't seen anyone done that and be successful either).<p>I know an owner/co-founder of a startup in Indonesia and they have diverse channels.<p>Having said that, I wish you more success down the line.
Is he being ironic<p>> I really hate to say this, but I am quite disappointed with the startup scene in Indonesia. In Silicon Valley, you compete fairly with each other through creating better products and services. People highly respect good products and services. In Indonesia, you compete with each other through $$$. The one who has the most cash in their bank will most possibly win the competition.<p>All the hypergrowth startups are burning piles of cash with almost no sustainable way out.
Thanks for your write up. After my own failed attempt I came to the conclusion that any product based primarily on aggregating products that others sell is a failed model. You are a middle man in an already thin-margin industry and are competing directly with shops (who are incentivized to have customers come directly to them and bypass you) and other aggregators. It would be better if you became a drop shipper and sold the products yourself. Much more control, and the audience you were building with ads would have stayed.
Building two sided marketplaces is no joke. It's really tough.<p>If you decide to start something and it's a two sided marketplace be ready for a rough time.
Thanks for sharing your experience.<p>It sounds like you were facing a really tough competitive landscape. Throwing in the towel sounds like a wise thing to have done.<p>One thing I didn't totally get from the post is what exactly you were trying to improve about the shopping experience? It seems like there is a lot of room for improvement for both buyers and sellers. Could you have vetted sellers and/or tried to answer inane questions from buyers yourselves (acting like a web cache for popular requests), saving both parties the pain of waiting for a response? What if you offered some kind of reputation service? I'm sure you thought about this stuff, and I'm not saying any of this is easy. I just would be curious to hear more about how you thought through finding real, sticky product-market fit.
This is interesting to me more because it's rare to see a story about someone building products for the Indonesian market, which is very large. To the author: I'd love to see an article with more about some of the challenges and opportunities you see in Indonesia for startups.
Well done. It is better to have tried and failed than to never have tried at all.<p>If you want to have better odds next time, I'd advise you to read Zero to One. Think about what your secret is. What are you trying to do, what do you know about, that no one else knows? Then do that.<p>When you see lots of competitors, it's a pretty good bet you haven't found a secret.
<i></i>"fashion social commerce marketplace."*<p>"Fab" tried that. They were based in NYC, and blew through about $200M in venture capital before tanking. Did the author of this article know that? Did whomever funded him?