Heaptalk, Jakarta — Indonesia’s digital sector has been steadily growing over the past few years. Despite ongoing infrastructure development efforts by the government, stakeholders have also been proactive in promoting digital literacy and the economy.
Based on the Google e-Conomy SEA Report 2023, Indonesia’s digital economy’s Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) reached US$82 billion last year and is projected to increase to US$109 billion by 2025 and reach US$360 billion by 2030. E-commerce, transportation, online food delivery services, online media, and online travel agents dominate this progress.
Aligned with this positive projections, East Ventures‘ digital report, Digital Competitiveness Index (EV_DCI), discovered a consistent decrease in digital competitiveness gaps over the past four years, with median index scores steadily increasing.
In 2020, EV-DCI recorded a median index score of 27.9. This score continued to elevate to 32.1 in 2021, 35.2 in 2022, and 38.5 last year. The median growth indicates improvements in digital competitiveness in middle—and lower-ranked provinces.
Additionally, the spread value, which indicates the disparity of digital competitiveness between provinces, has diminished over time. The value was recorded at 62 in 2020, then decreased to 55.6 (2021) and 48.3 (2022). Furthermore, the report demonstrated an increase of the value to 53.2 due to the enhancement of Indonesia’s provinces.
As is known, spread is the difference between the highest and lowest values between provinces. The higher the spread value, the higher the disparity in digital competitiveness among provinces. The decreasing spread values in the EV-DCI report show a positive trend, with the differences in digital competitiveness between provinces narrowing.
In the report outcomes from 2020 to 2023, DKI Jakarta consistently leads the digital competitiveness index. Across the last four reports, this province’s digital competitiveness scored 73.2 (2022), 77.6 (2021), 79.7 (2020), and 76.6 (2023).
Following Jakarta, West Java seized the second position, demonstrating consistent score improvements annually. Yogyakarta, Banten, and East Java enter in the top five positions, albeit with fluctuations in rankings. Java Island still dominates in digital infrastructure and substantially contributes to these regions’ digital economy.
East Ventures also observed that the government’s readiness to provide digital infrastructure contributes to a decrease in the country’s digital gap. Several governments cover the 5G BTS infrastructure construction, the SATRIA-1 satellite launch, the Palapa Ring project, and the country’s national fiber optic network. The report also admitted that the government MSME’s go-digital and startup incentives program also contribute significantly to digital adoption and literacy.
“The use of digital technology must be inclusive as the digital economy is the right of all Indonesian citizens. With sustainable digital economic progress, we expect that the county will foster millions of digital talents from various provinces, cities, and regions,” Co-Founder and Managing Partner at East Ventures, Willson Cuasa, affirmed.
