Julia Ursu, 19 March 2017

Go-Jek - one of the fastest-growing start-ups in Indonesia

The traffic situation in South-East Asia is more than just bad, making it unavoidable to struggle going through the daily massive traffic jam. The number of traffic vehicles is constantly increasing, which makes a bad situation even worse.
Indonesia’s capital Jakarta has one of the worst traffic jams in the world. According to a study by Castrol, Jakarta drivers have more stops and starts than any other drivers in any other city of the world. During one year, the average driver in Jakarta stops about 33,420 times, which is more than double the number of New York. It was desperately necessary to find an alternative or a possibility to get from destination to destination quicker, without losing precious time stuck in traffic jams for hours.

The solution is the sharing economy Go-Jek. The application provides a wide range of transportion and logistic services. You can order a motorbike-taxi (previously Ojek) among other offered services. Driving though Jakarta on a motorbike is by far the best possibility to get to the desired destination as fast as possible. A motorbike is usually twice as fast as a car. An innovation like this was necessary and there could not be a better timing for introduction. The app is only available in Indonesia. What started with 3.000 drivers in 2015 cooporates more than 200.000 drivers nowadays.

Go-Jek aims to provide a win-win situation for the customers and its providers. Almost every family in Jakarta owns at least one motorbike, which made it easy to establish the application quickly.

How to order a Go-Jek?

The application is very easy to handle and it is very easy to order a driver.

1. Enter your pick-up and drop-off destination through GPS details. The driver comes to your entered pick-up destination and brings you to your desired destination.

2. Wait for about 2-4 seconds until a driver is found. The price is pre fixed by the application and is calculated through distance, demand and the actual traffic situation. During rain season, when the demand is high, prices increase to get more drivers on the streets.

3. Confirm your driver. It is possible to follow the driver on the application on a real-time map. The application informs you when the driver is about one minute away.

4. Wait until your driver arrives.

5. Enjoy the ride through the crowded streets of Jakarta and escape the traffic jam.

6. Last but not least, you need to pay the driver. The rides cost around 5,000-10,000 IDR (about 30 cents to 80 cents) by Go-Jek.

How Go-Jek raises living standards

The gap between rich and poor is huge in Indonesia. Even if you have a job, it is very common that people are not able to survive with just one salary, especially if you have a family and kids to feed. In addition, the working hours are not flexible and long.

As a GO-Jek driver you have very flexible time. Basically, you can start and finish working whenever you want, following the principle that you earn more, the more you drive.

An English teacher for example earns about 100,000 IDR (more or less 7Euros) a month, which is definitely not enough to survive.

As a Go-Jek driver you can earn about 150,000-250,000 IDR per day, which translates to about 4,500,000 to 7,500,000 IDR (more or less 500 Euros) per month. This is a very easy and common example on how Go-Jek made their employees ends meet. Even people with good perspectives in their job resign their job to become a Go-Jek driver due to higher salaries. This results in the numbers of Go-Jek drivers increasing continuously.

Other provided services by Go-Jek

The application is very helpful and makes lives easier and faster. Go-Jek not only raised the living standards of many people in Indonesia. It innovated the delivery service. Now it is possible to order and deliver almost everything by the new offered services like GO-SEND à Deliver or pick-up items, Go-Massage à ordering a massage, Go-Cleanà ordering a cleaning lady, Go-Glamà ordering a stylist, Go-Medà getting medicine picked up. Go-Jek tailored their start-up as well towards new target groups like seniors of example, to increase their market share.

What do you think? Could a business model like Go-Jek work as well in Germany? What would be the advantages? What would be the disadvantages?

Julia Ursu

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