Start-up giants race to digitize 'warung'

Homegrown start-up giants are taking advantage of the underserved sector of warung ( kiosks or mom-and-pop store), as the COVID-19 pandemic speeds up the digitalization of little and medium enterprises (SMEs). In a country where small companies represent more than 60 percent of the economy, a warung is the nearest retail area for many people to make small purchases of snacks or family supplies. Indonesian unicorn Gojek is the current gamer to go into the race, with the September launch of GoToko, an online business-to-business (B2B) platform that enables small retailers to straight access brand concepts, offer item recommendations and use Gojek to get stock deliveries, among other things. “We desire brands to come on board with us to much better accommodate the underserved, as it is in some cases tough to disperse items to warung,” GoToko CEO and presid …