Indonesian web giants Gojek and Tokopedia merge to create Asian super-app

Combine as ‘GoTo Group’, will represent two percent of GDP and say scale will help them grow

Indonesian web giants Gojek and Tokopedia have agreed to merge and become the new “Go To Group”.

Tokopedia offers an e-commerce platform, plus electronic payment and logistics services. Gojek started as a ride-hailing business has since diversified into five Southeast Asian nations where it offers food delivery, financial services, digital payments and logistics services.

Together, the new entity will have over 100 million monthly active users, two million registered drivers, eleven million participating merchants and collective capacity that handled almost two billion transactions in 2020 alone.

The two companies claim their combined group transaction value of around $22billion represents two percent of Indonesia’s gross domestic product.

That’s a lot of market muscle and the combined companies want more: their ShinyHappy announcement video says the two mega-corps have “come together to be stronger”.

The new group will need that strength, because Singaporean rival Grab has already expanded into some of the same markets GoTo group covets and recently teed up a stock market listing that will infuse it with billions.

GoTo Group is expected to pursue a listing sooner rather than later to fuel its expansion ambitions. Cementing its hold on the Indonesian market will also be on the to-do list, as while the nation is not wealthy it is the world’s fourth-most-populous and becoming more sophisticated every year. ®