Internet for Indonesia

By: Maria Firdausiah

We are now facing Digital Era where we can do almost everything using internet and IT. We
can buy from fashion items we like to our household needs. We can even buy groceries online.
Internet can also connect us to our friends whether they are close or they are away abroad. We
can send message, make video call or simply just update our social media so that our friends
know what we are doing at the time. Internet change everything in our live. It makes something
going from offline to online.
Digital era is basically where we can use internet and technology to make our job or our activity
more effective and efficient. Here we know that internet can help people in so many sectors
like education, health, economy, social etc. In education sector internet can help student access
online class. In health sector internet help people connect to a doctor without having to come
to the clinic or hospital.
The benefits of the internet for the community are very large. The internet helps a lot in the
daily lives of Indonesians starting from help traveling with ride sharing, buying goods,
delivering food, waiting in line, buying holiday tickets, movie tickets and even paying
household bills
With the many disasters that have hit Indonesia lately, one of the applications that felt so beneficial is
the crowd funding application. This application is very helpful in collecting donations for disaster
victims. Surely the use of this application is through the internet. Internet has a lot of benefit for
Indonesian people. It is amazing that the internet can help doing charity. We can collect some money
from people across the country and deliver it to the one who needs.

Other than that, an application that is also useful is ecommerce in Indonesia. Ecommerce
changes the lives of many Indonesians by creating a sales system that used to be done offline
in the store only, now can be done online anytime and anywhere. The presence of ecommerce
helps many Indonesians to dare to become entrepreneurs. Everyone has the same opportunity
to build their own business. Everyone can be boss. Everyone can be entrepreneur. Everyone
can be king on their own little kingdom. With the help of the internet, they can sell and market
their product across the country.
In Indonesia internet is like primary needs. According to survey held by Asosiasi
Penyelenggara Internet Indonesia (APJII), Indonesian internet user in 2016 reach 132,7
million. Indonesia has 256,2 million population, so we can conclude that 51,8% Indonesia’s
population is internet user. This is the impact of smartphone. Trough smartphone people can
easily connect to the internet. People tend to bring their smartphone every time and everywhere.
This can be seen as an opportunity to develop new application that can help society.
Indonesia has over 200 million population. This population is potential for Indonesia to develop
new internet technology. Indonesian government start to care about digital startup. With the
support from government, Indonesia expected to be a leader in digital era. With giving support
and training I believe Indonesian people especially young people can develop their new, fresh,
and creative ideas. Those ideas certainly can be useful to help people with their work. Not only
it is able to help people do their work easily, with the emergence of many startups, there are
also many jobs that can be given to Indonesian people. We can help people in Indonesia getting
job or create job.
Lately many investors are interested to invest in Indonesia’s technology sector. This is also
opportunity for us to build new digital startup that can be beneficial for society and also give a
lot of profit. We can see that ecommerce still a promising sector. Other than that, according to
Stefan Jung from Venturra Capital fintech is now become the most outstanding opportunities
on a global level.
Other than technological development, thing that also important is the equal distribution of
internet access throughout Indonesia. So that people from Sabang to Merauke can feel the same
impact of internet presence. Imagine if people in the countryside could be touched by the
internet, of course it could make their lives easier and help them earn income. Like woven
fabric craftsmen in the countryside who can market their products through ecommerce so that
their products can be known and bought by many people.

To face the 4.0 industrial revolution, of course we must prepare ourselves to survive with the
increase technology usage and technology competition. We also have to take part in helping
the development of digital technology in Indonesia so that Indonesia is not inferior to other
countries.