The players in crowdfunding industry in Indonesia

The purpose of this work is to provide empirical evidence on the players in the crowdfunding industry in Indonesia and the peculiarities of crowdfunding platforms operated. Indonesia is the largest economy in Southeast Asia and one of the emerging market economies in the world. As the fintech industry is becoming more active in the market, Indonesia will play an important role in the crowdfunding industry in Asia. Having demographic bonus in which around half of the population is below 30 years old, numbers of entrepreneurs have increased significantly (Fintech Indonesia, 2016). Dominated by the SMEs, the economy of the country has become stronger in the economic as the consequence of better performance of SMEs contributing 59% of GDP. In addition, the increasing number of Internet users has also motivated more people to maximize the use of crowdfunding. All these facts are relevant to the development of crowdfunding industry. Although in Indonesia crowdfunding is still in the infancy stage, it has shown a significant contribution to the financial inclusion for the development of financial industry in the country. This is observable by looking at the expansion rate of platforms created from year to year; the publication related to crowdfunding issue in the media and more importantly, the concerns of regulator on the need of establishing clear framework and regulation to govern the crowdfunding activity as an alternative for financing solution especially for the non-bankable person. To carry out this study, I identified and analyzed all crowdfunding platforms run by companies located or located elsewhere but focus on the Indonesian market. All platforms were investigated to identify the main characteristics, and the business model and to also study their peculiarities and any other remarkable fact that, in consideration, had to be discussed. In addition, I also conducted interview with CEOs of crowdfunding platforms in order to get views, experiences and insight on how they manage the platforms. 2 The study evidenced an impressive growth of P2P lending based platforms that accounts for approximately 75% of the total platforms available. Donation based platforms is also getting popular in funding social activity and charitable fundraising. However, the equity crowdfunding shows a slower rate of growth compared with neighbor countries such as Malaysia. There is only 1 equity crowdfunding platform in Indonesia, while Malaysia is reported to have 6 operators in 2017. The absence of regulation is the main reason that should be addressed to the regulator. The research also shows an increasing rate of entrepreneurs who invest in both agricultural and real estate. The agricultural players are normally small entrepreneurs who run the business in a smaller scale and do not have access to financing from Banks or formal financial institutions. While, investment in real estate is increasing following the growing trend of mortgage in the country. Not only conventional platforms, the presences of sharia based platforms which applies Islamic finance principles are also marking the growth of investment in both agricultural and real estate. An unprecedented phenomenon discovered was the sharia crowdfunding that began gaining strength in the industry but where the small investors did not have the opportunity or knowledge to invest. The crowdfunding in this industry opened the possibility to many increasing investors that consider this alternative mean of finance in this industry a remarkable way to widen their investments. Through this study, I described the crowdfunding industry in Indonesia, to provide some insight on the current state of the phenomenon, the challenges that are being faced, the players in the industry, and the trends and opportunities that may enable further study on this topic.