Tokopedia

William Tanuwijaya and Leontinus Alpha Edison came up with the idea for Tokopedia in 2007. While reflecting on his childhood experience, Tanuwijaya realized that access to products such as books differed between small towns and big cities, and that technology could provide better access to products. The duo launched Tokopedia two years later with starting capital from an acquaintance.[7]

Toko is Indonesian for "shop", and is the first half of the portmanteau of the company's name, concatenated with "encyclopedia".[8] The choice of this designation is to reflect their objective of becoming an all-encompassing marketplace for Indonesians.[7] Tokopedia has since expanded its business to cover the fintech, payments, logistics, and retail sectors.

Since 2017, Tokopedia's office resides in a 53-floor building called the Tokopedia Tower, located in the central business district of Jakarta.

As of 2018, it is claimed that Tokopedia's products and services are accessible in 93% of sub-districts across Indonesia.[9]

In March 2023, Tokopedia announced its new management structure: Melissa Siska Juminto is now leading Tokopedia as its President of E-Commerce and as Director/Chief Human Resources Officer for GoTo.[10] Prior to her current role, Melissa was the COO of Tokopedia since 2018. She joined us in 2012 as an Accounting and Finance Lead and since then, has continued to develop and strengthen teams across our ecosystem. Meanwhile, William Tanuwijaya will transition from his day-to-day executive responsibilities at Tokopedia to dedicate his time primarily to GoTo Group.

In 2009, Tokopedia received seed funding from PT Indonusa Dwitama of IDR 2.5 billion. Tokopedia later attracted capital injections from venture capitalists including East Ventures (in 2010), CyberAgent Ventures (in 2011), NetPrice (in 2012), and SoftBank Ventures Korea (in 2013).

In October 2014, Tokopedia became the first technology company in Southeast Asia to receive a US$100 million investment, led by Sequoia Capital and SoftBank Internet and Media Inc (SIMI).

In April 2016, Tokopedia raised another US$147 million.[11] A year later, it received US$1.1 billion in a new round of investment, led by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group.[12] In 2018, an additional US$1.1 billion was injected into the company, in a round led by existing investors Alibaba and SoftBank, raising the company's valuation to approximately US$7 billion.[13]

Tokopedia's official mascot, named "Toped".

Tokopedia provides a customer-to-customer (C2C) platform that is free to use for merchants and buyers. Brands operating on a business-to-customer (B2C) basis have the option to set up verified, official stores on the platform too. Products listed on Tokopedia vary widely across at least 25 categories, ranging from food and beverages to beauty and fashion products, and more.

Tokopedia also offers digital products such as credit, bill payments, voucher and ticket purchases, and others.

In 2018, Tokopedia launched Mitra Tokopedia to offer fintech solutions such as digital wallets (e-wallets), virtual credit cards, insurance, and more. Mitra is targeted at small business owners such as grocery stores and family-owned warungs.[14]

In 2019, Tokopedia launched a smart fulfilment service called TokoCabang, which helps sellers to expand their business across Indonesia. Tokopedia Salam was launched not long after—a service that supports Sharia market needs in Indonesia by providing Umrah services.[15] Users can also purchase a variety of Muslim-friendly products and services through Salam. Sharia-compliant payment methods and investment products are also available on Tokopedia's platform.[16]

Tokopedia suffered a data breach on 2 May 2020, when the personal information of 15 million users were hacked, including their gender, locations, usernames, full names, email addresses, phone numbers, and hashed passwords. The hacker, under the pseudonym ShinyHunters, put up the entire database purported to have 91 million records for sale at a price of US$5,000.[17][18][19]

Tokopedia emphasized that the crucial data of its users, such as passwords, will remain protected and encrypted, and data-related payment methods stored on the platform were not affected by the breach.[20] To further investigate the matter, the company has said that they will work closely with key government institutions, including the Ministry of Communication and Informatics and the National Cyber and Crypto Agency (BSSN), as well as engage world-class, independent agencies specializing in cybersecurity to identify ways to enhance our protection of Tokopedia users.[21]

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