Investment in Indonesian Startup 'Gojek'
Accelerating the Establishment of Electronic Payment System through Own Messenger App 'WhatsApp'
[Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Jae-hee] Facebook is making a large-scale investment in an Indonesian startup this time.
According to major foreign media on the 3rd (local time), WhatsApp, Facebook's mobile messenger platform, is reported to have invested in the Indonesian startup Gojek.
Gojek is known as the 'Uber' of Indonesia, starting in 2010 as a vehicle sharing and ride-hailing service, and expanding its business areas to online payments, food delivery, and more, becoming Indonesia's largest startup. Currently, it is considered one of the two major ride-sharing companies in Southeast Asia along with Grab.
The scale of the investment has not been disclosed, but major foreign media described it as a 'significant amount.'
Payment service provider PayPal is also reported to have invested in Gojek, and existing investors Tencent Holdings and Google are understood to have made additional investments in Gojek.
Previously, Facebook invested a total of $5.7 billion (about 7.05 trillion KRW) in 'Jio,' the telecommunications division of Reliance led by Mukesh Ambani, Asia's richest person, to enter the Indian e-commerce market.
This investment is also interpreted as part of launching an electronic payment system similar to Google Pay through its own messenger service WhatsApp.
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