Google Asia Pacific Blog: Indonesia

Field test in Indonesia: can mobile web pages load faster?

Friday, May 1, 2015

No one likes waiting. Whether you’re looking for the latest news, the right answer, or the phone number for that coffee shop you left your bag at, faster is better. Unfortunately, in Indonesia, where network connections are often slow, getting information like this on your phone can be tough, and frustrating.

So we’re exploring some new ways to speed things up. In two weeks, we’ll start to field test a new feature which we hope will do just that. If you’re in Indonesia, with an Android phone and on a slow connection, like 2G, you should start to see pages loading a whole lot faster, while using far less data, via your Chrome or Android browser. There’s more on how this works on our webmasters blog.

It’s still early days, but our initial tests show that these new light pages load four times faster and use 80% less data than before. Of course, if you’d prefer to see the original page, you can choose that option at the top of your page.

With over 88 million people in Indonesia searching the web from a phone, we’re working hard to make access faster and more affordable. After all, if each of those 88 million Indonesian smartphone users spends just 1 extra second a day waiting for a page to load, that adds up to more than two and a half years of people waiting, every day. That’s more time than it took to build Jakarta's 88,000 seat Gelora Bung Karno Stadium.

Posted by Hiroto Tokusei, Product Manager

5 Things to Know about Indonesia’s HiJup.com

Tuesday, April 14, 2015

This post is part of our regular series of discussions with people across Asia-Pacific who’ve caught our eye, using the Internet to create, connect and grow. This week we spoke to Diajeng Lestari, CEO of HiJup.com, who helped us put together this handy list of highlights about her fast growing online fashion business.

1. HiJup.com was born to help “hijabers” rethink corporate fashion
When Diajeng Lestari, known to her friends as Ajeng, was working nine-to-five as a market researcher she wanted to look professional, yet fashionable — a challenging look to pull off for “hijabers”, a term that Ajeng uses to refer to Muslim women like herself. With this as her inspiration, Ajeng created HiJup.com in 2011 as a curated store with collections from local designers and brands, designed to help “hijabers” dress and feel fashionable, confident and happy.
HiJup (5).jpg

2. The key to a good HiJup.com “How-to” is a silent video
Presentation is key, and in the case of HiJup.com, it is also video. Ajeng turned to YouTube as her choice of a low budget but high impact marketing platform. The first thing she did was launch HiJup.com with a simple series of “how-to” videos on YouTube teaching women how to get creative with their hijab fashion. The series was silent, with the intentional absence of language in the videos making the content ready for an international audience.

By paying close attention to her viewers’ comments, Ajeng carefully developed the channel’s video content over the past four years, working with other content creators like bloggers, vloggers and make-up artists to add more tutorials and fashion-related content. Today, the YouTube channel has nearly 130,000 subscribers, and with over 16 million combined views is attracting brands like Unilever and telco provider, XL, who are interested in collaborating on video production.

3. From one video to the world: Global audiences are tuning in to HiJup.com
It’s not just Indonesians watching HiJup.com’s YouTube videos — more than 30% of her viewers are from outside Indonesia, with thousands watching in Malaysia, Dubai and Morocco. In fact, the Hijup.com content on her YouTube channel has generated 20% of Hijup.com traffic.

4. From 2 to 48 employees in three years
From a two-woman venture (including Ajeng) in 2011, Hijup.com has grown to a team of 48 employees.

5. HiJup.com is now an online mall for Indonesian designers
More than 120 individual Indonesian designers and brands now use Hijup.com. The website and YouTube channel have helped connect millions of women in Indonesia and the region looking for fashionable wardrobe solutions with local brands and designers from across Indonesia through one convenient shop.

Posted by Diajeng Lestari, CEO of HiJup.com and a member of the Gapura community helping Indonesian businesses go online

Selamat datang Android One — high-quality, affordable smartphones coming to Indonesia

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Android One—our global initiative to bring high-quality smartphones to as many people as possible—is coming to Indonesia later this month through both online and offline channels. This makes Indonesia the fifth country to roll-out Android One, following launches in India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

In Indonesia, we’re working with leading partners Evercoss, Mito and Nexian to make high-quality smartphones for less than 1.5 million rupiah. Each one runs the latest version of Android (Lollipop) — the fastest, most responsive Android experience ever with up to 2x better performance than the previous version. The battery saver can help extend batteries by up to 90 minutes. Android’s new look, material design, has smooth scrolling and edge-to-edge graphics. There are also quick settings to conserve data: it takes just two quick swipes to turn off data and check data usage.

Android One phones also feature great hardware, like front- and rear-facing cameras as well as features particularly important to Indonesia such as dual SIM slots, an FM radio tuner and a microSD card slot for additional storage. Android One phones will always have the latest version of Android, automatically updating to the new version of Android soon after it is released (for up to two years).

Along with Android One, we’re also working to reduce data costs for people in Indonesia. Our data compression feature on Android One’s Chrome browser helps compress the amount of data flowing between the phone and the Internet. And Indonesia is one of the first countries where YouTube users can take videos offline to watch later during periods of low or no Internet connectivity. In conjunction with the launch, mobile service provider Telkomsel is offering to reduce data costs for those who buy Android One phones with a promotion that provides free over-the-air (OTA) updates and 200MB per month worth of app downloads from Google Play for the first six months.

We’re very happy to play a part in bringing Android One smartphones to Indonesia — another step in making high-quality, affordable Android devices available to everyone and empowering the next billion.

Posted by Caesar Sengupta, Google Vice President of Product Management

Learning the basics of online safety with Google in Indonesia

Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Editor’s note: This guest post is from Boni Pudjianto of Indonesia’s Ministry of Communication & Information Technology (KOMINFO) who attended a Google Security Cafe in Jakarta last month.

Today, 70 million—or about one in four—Indonesians are using the Internet. In the next two years, another 50 million will come online for the first time and discover the opportunities the web offers, from improved communication, to education and entrepreneurship. To make the most of it, Indonesians need to know how they can ensure a safe and positive online experience.

This is why I was excited by a recent invitation from Google to attend a “Security Cafe”. You might ask what kind of cafe this is. Yes, there was coffee available, but the idea behind it was to guide visitors through typical daily scenarios to demonstrate some simple steps that young and old Internet users can take to more easily and more confidently explore the web. We learned about everything from protecting your online identity, to avoiding scams and creating a child-friendly Internet experience.

Boni Pudjianto (first from the left) at the Security Cafe in Jakarta

I’ve now started thinking about passwords in the same way as my front door key, which protects everything inside my home. Passwords should be complex and unique: they should consist of a combination of numbers, letters and symbols, and it’s wise to use a different password for every important online account such as email and banking.

We also talked about the importance of staying positive on the Internet. The phrase “treat others the way you want to be treated” applies online just as much as it does offline. This means you should only post, comment or forward something if you wouldn’t mind someone doing the same to you. Many Internet companies provide reporting tools that every user should familiarize themselves with and use against inappropriate behavior.

Google’s taking an important step to highlight these practical tips. KOMINFO is pleased that Google supports the goals of our Internet Sehat Dan Aman (“Healthy and Safe Internet”) program to build Generasi Internet Cerdas, Kreatif, dan Produktif -- a smart, creative and productive Internet generation.

Posted by Boni Pudjianto, Deputy Director for ICT Empowerment in Urban Area, Indonesian Ministry of Communication & Information Technology (KOMINFO)

Asia’s hottest tech trends of 2014: Most searched chat apps

Thursday, December 18, 2014

This post is part of our series that looks at the tech gadgetry and geeky moments that went truly viral in Asia in 2014. Check out google.com/2014 for lists of the most popular searches around the world. Enjoy!

Just how much do Indonesians love to chat? A lot. On average, Indonesians have at least 3 chat apps installed on their smartphones—25% of Indonesian smartphone users have more than 5. In fact, Indonesians searched for and downloaded so many chat apps that we have a whole list of the most searched-for chat apps in Indonesia.

Top gadgets in Indonesia

iPhone 6
Nokia X
Samsung Galaxy Core
ASUS Zenfone 5
Samsung Galaxy S5
Samsung Galaxy V
Samsung Galaxy S4
iPhone 5S
Blackberry Z3
Samsung Galaxy Grand

Top chat apps in Indonesia

BBM
WhatsApp
Line
WeChat
Skype
Yahoo Messenger
Facebook Messenger
Kakao Talk
BeeTalk
Kik Messenger

What’s notable is the fact that while Blackberry used to be king in Indonesia, searches for Blackberry’s latest device comes in 9th place, while various Samsung models take up five spots out of the top ten. However, it seems like everyone is still tied to Blackberry Messenger, as BBM reigned as the most searched-for chat app of 2014. In fact, BBM was searched for twice as much as WhatsApp, its nearest rival. What’s clear though is that no matter the device they’re on, Indonesians are certainly agnostic about which app they use to communicate with each other.

Google search trends capture just how competitive Asia is for homegrown messaging apps, whose popularity completely eclipses those that are popular in the West. For instance, note that for all of Indonesia’s obsession with chat apps, the one that didn’t make it big in Indonesia was one that exploded in popularity in the West this year: Snapchat.

As this chart shows, although Snapchat got more search interest globally than WeChat, it’s striking how little the two chat apps overlap in their spheres of influence.

Snapchat and WeChat: never the twain shall meet?

The interest in Line in Indonesia also heralds how Asia’s mobile Internet is becoming truly pan-Asian. Five years ago, Japan’s mobile Internet was dominated by flip NEC phones. Indonesia’s was dominated by Blackberrys. Korea had only just been given the regulatory approval to bring in the iPhone. Now Line, an app developed in Japan by a Korea-owned company, is rivaling Skype and Facebook Messenger in Indonesia for domination. Seen in that light, Indonesia’s love of chat apps looks less like a national obsession, and more like a regional leading indicator.

Posted by Jason Tedjasukmana, Communications Manager, Google Indonesia

Google’s Year in Search: Asia’s hottest tech trends of 2014

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

As we look back at this year’s hottest trends, we give you the tech gadgetry and geeky moments that went truly viral in Asia. Check out google.com/2014 for lists of the most popular searches around the world. Enjoy!

The selfie stick

A spectre is haunting Asia—the spectre of the selfie stick. A phenomenon that first peaked in Malaysia, then jumped the straits to Indonesia, the skinny banner has been raised in the Philippines more times than in any other country. This humble stick has caused such a stir that even the South Korean government has apparently banned its sale—what could be the cause of such alarm?

The Philippines: the Himalayas of the selfie stick emergence. The US is just crawling out from the Mariana trenches of selfie stick searches.

In any case, if 2013 was the year of the selfie, 2014 was the year of the selfie stick (well, here in Asia, at least). As you can see from the chart above, people in Malaysia first started searching for selfie sticks on Google early this year, then by the summer Filipinos were all wielding the contraption, just as searches gained in popularity in Indonesia.

Speculations are rife as to why the selfie stick originated in Asia, and various countries contend for the title of selfie stick originator. We do know, however, that front-facing cameras were a fixture on Asian feature phones, long before smartphones even emerged. In the early days of flip phones in Japan, circa mid-2000s, Japanese carriers even promoted a whole campaign around “jidori” 自撮り or selfies, and encouraged people to email photos of themselves to their friends over WAP (remember that?!).

Whether you call it a monopod, 自拍神棍 (“selfie magic stick” in Chinese), or tongkat narsis (“narcissistic stick” in Indonesian), this phenomenon is truly on the rise in Asia—watch out, other regions, before it jumps the pond to a selfie-taker near you. And remember: you saw it here in Asia first.

Posted by Robin Moroney, Communications Manager, Google Asia Pacific

Say hello with Google Translate in Malayalam, Myanmar, Sinhala and Sundanese

Friday, December 12, 2014

Whether you're teaching yourself a new language or trying to make a new friend, Google Translate can be a powerful tool for crossing language barriers. Today, we're adding 10 languages to Translate, including four new Asian languages, bringing our total number of supported languages to 90.

Google Translate helps you say thank you in Myanmar (Burmese)

In India and Southeast Asia, we are adding Malayalam, Myanmar, Sinhala, and Sundanese:

Malayalam (മലയാളം), with 38 million native speakers, is one of India’s 6 classical languages. It’s also been one of the most-requested languages by our users, so we are especially excited to add Malayalam support!
Myanmar (Burmese, မြန်မာစာ), spoken by 33 million native speakers, has been in the works for a long time. It's a challenging language for automatic translation, from both a language structure and a font encoding perspective. This is why we encourage the use of open standard fonts and therefore only output Myanmar translations in Unicode.
Sinhala (සිංහල) is one of Sri Lanka’s official languages and natively spoken by 16 million people. In September the Google Translate Community in Sri Lanka organized Sinhala Translate Week. Since then, participants have contributed tens of thousands of translations to our system.
Sundanese (Basa Sunda) is spoken by 39 million people living on the island of Java in Indonesia. While Sundanese does have its own script, it is today commonly written using the Latin alphabet.

In addition to these languages, we are adding several African languages, including Chichewa, Malagasy, and Sesotho; and Kazakh, Tajik, and Uzbek from Central Asia.

We’re just getting started with these new languages and have a long way to go. If it weren't for the active participation of the Translate Community, we wouldn't be able to launch some of these languages today. While our translation system learns from translated data found on the web, sometimes we need support from humans to improve our algorithms. We're grateful for all the support we're getting and hope that together with our community, we can continue improving translation quality for the languages we support today and add even more languages in the future.

You can help us by suggesting your corrections using the "Improve this translation" functionality on Translate and contributing to Translate Community.

Posted by Svetlana Kelman, Program Manager, Google Translate

Buffering wheel, stand aside: Introducing YouTube offline in India, Indonesia and the Philippines

Thursday, December 11, 2014

Imagine trying to watch the new trailer for Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge — the longest running Bollywood love story with over 20 years in the box office — but the video buffers every five seconds. Or imagine only being able to watch the first minute of it, before stepping out of the WiFi zone at the mall.

Asia has proven itself to be a mobile-first world in terms of smartphone adoption, but access to high-speed, affordable data remains a big challenge. In response, we’ve been working on ways to lessen the demands of speed and data for people using our products in places where there are challenges to access.

Today we’re releasing a new offline feature within the YouTube app, in India, Indonesia and the Philippines. This feature lets you take videos offline to watch later during short periods of low or no internet connectivity. For videos where this feature is available, you can choose to add the video for offline viewing by tapping on the offline icon. Once taken offline, videos can be played back without an Internet connection for up to 48 hours, so you can enjoy YouTube videos without worrying about slow connections.

Starting today, much of popular YouTube content in India, Indonesia and the Philippines is available for people to view offline, from Hindi movies to local comedy and unboxings. Making these popular videos available for offline playback will help people move past the challenges of data connection, speed and cost to enjoy a smooth, buffer-free version of their favorite content.

YouTube offline is just a start. We hope to keep finding better ways to make video content more affordable and accessible to our growing base of YouTube mobile users in the region.

Posted by Jay Akkad, Product Manager, YouTube who recently watched “Nanga Punga Dost' VIDEO Song | PK | Aamir Khan | Anushka Sharma | T-series” offline

#YouTubeRewind 2014: Celebrating what Asia-Pacific created, watched and shared

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Everyday, the world’s pop culture unfolds on YouTube. If you needed any proof that YouTube represents so many things to so many people, look no further than some of the year’s top videos across Asia. From great white sharks to local comedy acts, and letting it go millions of times, here’s a celebration of the people, memes and moments that made up an epic year for Asia on YouTube:

Taiwan: 頂尖對決之穿褲子篇 Top Battles - Wearing pants

We all know how tough it can be to kick off the day on the right foot sometimes, but this guy in Taiwan managed to start his day by getting his pants on without using his hands. Since then, he’s not only spurred a global meme (look out for the shoutout in this year’s Rewind video), but also his new “Top Battle” series where he completes crazy, hilarious challenges based on his fans suggestions.

Australia: GoPro: Man Fights Off Great White Shark In Sydney Harbour

Uploaded in June, this video made waves in Australia as people watched, re-watched and speculated about whether or not this encounter with a shark was a stunt. Have a dive in through this GoPro and let us know what you think.

New Zealand: Safety in Paradise #airnzsafetyvideo

Over in New Zealand, one Kiwi brand got playful and had over 6 million people tune in to their video. In an effort to make safety sexy, Air New Zealand worked with Sports Illustrated to feature some of their top swimsuit models in their new in-flight safety video.

Hong Kong: Ronnie Chau [公屋潮文] 公屋●居屋●私樓

This Hong Kong hit was inspired by a trending article on HKGolden about what happens when a girl brings a boyfriend home to meet her parents. This parody of the different reactions to the boyfriend figure, based on where he lived, went viral shortly after it was uploaded in March.

Malaysia: I Give You Chance!

For Malaysians, YouTube is still as Malaysian as nasi lemak. Poking fun at the nation's favourite worst excuse for losing — by saying “I give you chance”, which is another way to say “I didn’t want to win anyway” — this video features two of Malaysia’s top YouTube vloggers and has been seen by over 2 million people.

Indonesia: Dodit - Pembalasan Buat Radit (SUCI 4 Show 8)

Indonesians love to laugh. This year, five of the top ten non-music videos in Indonesia were local comedy acts, including this one by Raditya Dika, a popular Indonesian YouTuber, writer, and stand-up comedian.

Singapore: Past vs Present: Teenagers

This year’s top videos in Singapore showed us that there’s nothing Singaporeans like better than laughing along with local creators, whether it’s revisiting school memories like in this video, or everyday life with Wah Banana’s “10 Types of People in The Hawker Centre”.

India: AIB: Alia Bhatt - Genius of the Year

While many of this year’s top videos in India highlight independent video creators who went viral covering spoof parodies of leading politicians and news anchors, this clip shows how India gave a thumbs up to leading Bollywood star Alia Bhatt for her self-deprecating humorous video created by the popular AIB group.

Thailand: คงไม่ทัน - สงกรานต์

In Thailand, music soared to new heights on YouTube. This music video by Songkran Rangsan, the winner of the Voice Thailand in 2013, has garnered nearly 100 million views — which is like everyone in Thailand watching the video 1.5 times since it debuted.

Philippines: Sarah Geronimo sings Frozen's 'Let It Go' on ASAP

Did you know that the Philippines was the top country in the world searching for “Let It Go” this year? It’s no wonder then that one of the most-loved YouTube videos in the Philippines in 2014 was a rendition of the song by popular singer and actress Sarah Geronimo, with nearly 6 million views.

Japan: Let It Go Beatbox Cover (from "Frozen") アナと雪の女王レットイットゴー

Meanwhile in Japan, “Let It Go” found a new beatboxing groove. This special collaboration between Daichi and HIKAKIN, two of the biggest human beatbox stars in Japan, landed over 5 million views.

Korea: 양띵 [탈옥을 꾀하는 자, 협력하라! 마인크래프트 감옥탈출 1편] 마인크래프트

In Korea, YangDDing had an explosive year on YouTube. By making Minecraft videos like the one above, she's become the first Asian female gamer to have a following of over a million strong on YouTube.

These are just some of the top YouTube hits from 2014 in Asia-Pacific. Check out our YouTube Rewind channel for more of this year’s favorite videos from around the world, including a mashup of the top branded videos and the top ads on YouTube. You can also visit google.com/2014 next week for Google's annual look at the people, places and events that captured the world's attention.

Posted by Gautam Anand, Director of Operations and Content, YouTube Asia-Pacific who recently watched "YouTube Rewind: Turn Down for 2014"

What digital literacy means for Indonesia’s newest Internet users

Monday, November 10, 2014

Do you remember your first experience of the Internet? That moment when you realized you had access to virtually all the information you could think of—and more—within just a few quick clicks? In Indonesia, thirteen million people came online for the first time last year, most of them in smaller cities and rural areas, and are experiencing just that.

The opportunities online can overwhelm—from starting a business to taking up an online course. So we partnered with ICT Volunteers and created Lentera: Stay Safe Online, a program to equip new Internet users with digital literacy and online safety skills. “Lentera” is Bahasa Indonesia for “lantern”—a light in the dark. The Lentera program sheds light on the basics of Internet use, including tips and tricks for young and old to navigate the web safely and responsibly. We recently took Lentera on the road to 80 high schools in Ambon, Surabaya and Bandung, and met with more than 400 students, teachers, counselors, and parents, all thanks to the support of the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology, the Ministry of Education and Culture, and local city administrations.

Clockwise from top left: With Tri Rismaharini, Mayor of Surabaya; students discussing materials presented by speakers; a group selfie in Ambon; teachers trying out the Google Safety Center and Google Apps for Education

The 400 students, teachers and parents we reached learned about online safety and maximizing the potential of the web through knowledge sharing, hands-on workshops, quizzes, and games. Teachers like Bay Hurasan said the workshop allowed her to experience first-hand the opportunities that the Internet offers to bring education to life and the rest of the world closer to more remote parts of the country like Ambon.

We hope you’ll join us when we hit the road again in 2015!

Posted by Agung Yudhawiranata, Public Policy & Government Relations, Google Indonesia

Public Alerts and Crisis Map for natural disasters now available in Indonesia

Monday, September 22, 2014

From earthquakes to tsunamis, Indonesia is no stranger to the dangers presented by natural disasters. In times of crisis, it’s critical that useful information is available to as many people as possible. That’s why we’re launching Google Public Alerts and a Crisis Map for Indonesia.

Google Public Alerts are designed to provide accurate and relevant emergency alerts when and where you need them. Going forward, earthquake and tsunami warnings will appear on the Google Public Alerts page and across Google Search, Google Maps and Google Now.

In the event of a tsunami, searching for related information on Google Search or Maps on your desktop or mobile device will result in a warning like the one below.

Public alert for “tsunami nias” in Google Search

And you can click on the alert to find out more information with details about the projected area of impact, estimated time of arrival, wave height and advice on what to do to stay safe.

Public Alert details for a tsunami warming

On Android and iOS devices, Google Now will display a card with alert information and any evacuation instructions to all users who are located in affected areas.

Public Alert on Google Now for a tsunami warning

This is also the first time we’re working with a telecoms operator to further the reach of these critical alerts on feature phones. Indosat subscribers will be able to access these alerts by dialling *123*77# from their Indosat number and following the prompts.

Screen Shot 2014-09-21 at 8.57.00 PM.png

Indosat users can receive alerts on their feature phones

In addition to these emergency alerts, we’re also launching a Google Crisis Map for Indonesia. In times of crisis, this map will provide relevant information and the ability for organizations to add other layers of information, including shelter and hospital locations, evacuation routes and more.

We’re able to provide this crisis map and Public Alerts in Indonesia thanks to Badan Meteorologi Klimatologi dan Geofisika (BMKG) and Badan Nasional Penanggulangan Bencana (BNPB). Their partnership and commitment to providing information to the public enables Google and others to make critical and life-saving notifications more widely available.

We look forward to expanding Google Public Alerts to more countries and working with more warning providers soon. We encourage potential partners to read our FAQ and to consider using an open format for their data, such as the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP). To learn more about Public Alerts, please visit our Public Alerts homepage.

Posted by Meryl Stone, Strategic Partnerships, Google Crisis Response

Indonesia’s guitar man

Monday, September 15, 2014

This post is part of our regular series of interviews with people across Asia-Pacific who’ve caught our eye, using the Internet to create, connect and grow.

What inspired you to create Rick Hanes Guitars?
There’s a saying that you live only once so you have to make it meaningful. I thought about it and realized that today almost everything, even the smallest things like sandal jepit or hair dye, are imported, so why not create something myself, right here in Indonesia? That something was the guitar, which I’ve always been passionate about.

Why did you choose to go online?
The Internet helps us with every aspect of the business: reaching consumers and distributors, making information about our guitars easily accessible, and building our community of fans. After winning the Guitar of the Year Award in 2012, social media helped us get the word out. Global platforms like YouTube also help us to easily share information that can be difficult to capture in writing or through pictures, such as our artists’ stories.

What has been your biggest challenge?
Staying innovative. It’s hard work, but without constant innovation, we can’t compete. The Internet is an incredibly important source of information for product research and development. Plus it offers a way to easily and quickly seek input from people around the world. It’s effective because it’s available to anyone with a connection and the barriers to entry are low. We produce just 100 guitars a month, so we have room to iterate and create really great products with the right input.

For example, my first guitar, the Mr D Squirrel series, had a plug-in option for an iPod or iPhone, enabling guitarists to make use of the sound effects provided by Apple’s Garage Band app. I learned about this app online. This innovation means musicians can turn their electric guitars into nearly any other musical instrument with just a little piece of hardware. We are now researching the best way to bring the plug-in option to Android users as well.

The Rick Hanes Band (Doddy Hernanto, Taraz "Triad" Bistara, Donny Suhendra and Joenathan Amanta) playing at Jazz Traffic 2012

What does the future hold for Rick Hanes Guitars?
Rick Hanes is still a guest in this country. Above all, I want more Indonesian musicians to fall in love with our guitars and select Rick Hanes over international brands. It would be great to see “Cintai Produk Indonesia” (Love Indonesian Products, a campaign to promote local brands) turn into reality. I think the Internet can help make this happen. Indonesians love social media, so this is a great way for us to build a local following. With millions of young Indonesians coming online for the first time, the future looks bright not just for us, but for all music lovers.

Posted by Doddy 'Mr D' Hernanto, VP Artists Relationship & Business Development, Rick Hanes Guitars and and member of the Google Business Group Surabaya

From roads to reefs and temples, we’ll go!

Thursday, August 21, 2014

The summer holidays may be coming to an end in many parts of the world, but there’s still enough time for one last trip. Let Street View take you on an adventure to Indonesia and Cambodia, with new panoramic imagery from a handful of cities and many more attractions in these two countries. Whether you’re an urbanite, a nature lover or a culture vulture, there’s something on Google Maps for you to explore.

Starting today, you can explore street-level views of Jakarta, Surabaya, Denpasar and Bogor. So why not go on a traffic-free stroll past the iconic Hotel Indonesia roundabout in central Jakarta?

Bunderan H.I., Central Jakarta, Indonesia

You can also walk through the stunning rice terraces on the island of Bali:

Jatiluwih Rice Terraces, Bali, Indonesia

Or dive into the waters at Komodo Island National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site, and swim through the new underwater Street View imagery collected by the Catlin Seaview Survey team using their 360-degree panoramic SVII cameras:

Underwater at the Komodo National Park Reefs, Indonesia

At the click of a mouse, Google Maps will transport you to Cambodia where you can explore new panoramic views of the capital city Phnom Penh, Siem Reap and more than 10 other provinces.

Wat Phnom, Phnom Penh

You can also roam some of the country’s most beautiful waterfalls, beaches and mountain-top pagodas right on Google Maps and on Google Views.

Tatai Waterfall - Koh Kong Province, Cambodia

Screen Shot 2014-08-20 at 4.48.22 PM.png

Outer Koh Kong, Koh Kong Province, Cambodia

Sampow Pram Pagoda on Bokor Mountain, Kampot Province, Cambodia

Indonesia and Cambodia are home to rich cultural history and ever-changing landscapes, and we hope this new Street View imagery can help you more easily discover these countries. So go on, enjoy the last few days of summer and explore a corner of the world you haven’t been to before!

Posted by Andrew McGlinchey, Product Manager, Google Southeast Asia

Apply now for the South East Asia Google Teacher Academy

Friday, August 15, 2014

The Google Teacher Academy is coming to South East Asia for the first time this October. Open to all primary and secondary school teachers in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, the program is designed to help educators get the most out of new technologies in the classroom. If you like to innovate in your classroom using Google’s tools and more, this is the right program for you. Submissions are open until August 29, so get your applications in now.

The Academy will take place in Manila on October 2 and 3. Over these two days, you’ll get hands-on experience with Google’s free tools, learn about innovative instructional strategies and receive resources to share with colleagues.

Snapshots from previous GTAs around the world, including in New York and Sydney

Teachers like JR Ginex-Orinion say the best thing about GTA is becoming part of a global community of 2,000 educators who share the same passion for using technology in the classroom. He continues to lean on the network for advice and materials to help make it easier to get kids to adopt new, tech-based approaches to education. GTA has showed him how much more room there is for tech in learning, and inspired him to further develop his teaching style, enabling him to evolve professionally.

We look forward to meeting more like-minded teachers at the first South East Asian Academy!

Posted by Aileen Apolo, Education Outreach Program Manager, Google South East Asia

Guarding Indonesia's election (in their spare time)

Monday, August 11, 2014

An interesting thing happened last month after Indonesia concluded its third direct presidential election. We found out, like the rest of the world, that two of our software engineers developed a website (kawalpemilu.org) to help guard the vote counting process following the National Election Commission’s decision to upload voting results to its official government website.

Results from the July 9 election were among the closest ever recorded and the Googlers grew concerned after both candidates declared victory. Indonesians Felix Halim, based in Mountain View, and Andrian Kurniady, based in Sydney, joined forces with with three other Indonesian friends in Singapore, Germany, and the Netherlands to create Kawal Pemilu, or Guard the Election.

Working on their own time and using their own resources, they built a crowdsourcing system from scratch in two days. On July 13, they released it to the trusted volunteers to begin digitizing the scanned voting forms coming in from over 470,000 polling sites from around the archipelago. “By opening up the information to public scrutiny, we hoped the system would help reduce uncertainty, fears of electoral fraud and restore the public’s faith in one of the most important events in Indonesia’s young democracy,” explained Kurniady.

Felix Halim is on the far left and Andrian Kurniady is on the far right. Source: Felix Halim

In six days, hundreds of volunteers had digitized 97 percent of the voting forms. The website got nearly three million page views and was cited by Indonesian media after it was made public on July 14. “This helped the election commission and the public find and flag any anomalies with the votes at any level so they could get it fixed,” adds Halim.

This is how you do it.

The official, aggregated counts were later added with the same intent of providing up-to-date and organized information in a public setting. “We did this to inspire fellow Indonesians and to show the positive impact one can make when applying technology effectively.”

Both Googlers would also like to thank the election commission for opening up their data as well as the volunteers for contributing their time to make this effort possible.

Posted by Rudy Ramawy, Country Head, Google Indonesia

8 charts that show you what Asia really thinks of the World Cup

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Here are eight things about Asia's interest in the World Cup that you might not have known:

1. “But I’ve always supported Deutschland”

These countries in Asia suddenly wanted to know about German flags. Bangladesh, Indonesia and Malaysia were searching for the topic of German flags more intensely than Germany.

Searches for “flag of Germany” over the past 12 months in Asia

2. Indonesia searches for (almost) everybody

Here’s a chart showing Asia’s search interest in Germany. Indonesia’s one of the top countries.

This is a chart showing Asia’s search interest in Argentina. Nepal and Bangladesh are searching for the Argentina team the most. But Indonesia’s number three.

Now note Asia’s search interest in the Netherlands. And note Indonesia again.

And here’s Asia’s search interest in Brazil, which is in general higher than for the other teams in the final four. Yes, there’s Indonesia in third place.

3. Asia’s just not that into Asian teams

Japan and South Korea have the most search interest for South Korea. The rest of Asia? Not so much.

Asia’s search interest in South Korea’s team in the past 90 days

The world’s search interest in Japan’s team over the past 90 days

4. India’s just not that into football

If you think the U.S. is the country that cares the least about football (sorry, soccer), think again. India takes the top spot for shrugging its shoulders at the world’s most popular sport.

5. When it comes to injuries, incurred beats inflicted

Both Suarez’s bite and Neymar’s vertebra injury triggered a swarm of searches, but there were more searches for the Brazilian star’s back-breaking incident than even Suarez’s toothy foul that inspired everything from memes to bottle openers.

6. Classiest meme? World-Cup Tang poetry parody

Poems supposedly written by Chinese Tang dynasty poets Li Bai and Du Pu are trending when netizens rewrote them to make an acrostic that spelled out “Brazil suffers huge defeat in 2014”. Actually the poems were not written by Tang poets at all, but by football fans online who are waxing lyrical.

The line in blue is for the name of the poem “Touring Sichuan”; the line in red is for “Brazil”.

Searches for this poem actually spiked above searches for Brazil at one point last week in Taiwan and Hong Kong.

7. J-Lo, watch out for J-Ro

Golden Boot winner James Rodriguez, the striker from Colombia, trended across Asia. Taiwan’s netizens named him J羅, pronounced “J-Luo.” We can call him J.Ro though. Popularity for J.Ro has shot up past that of J.Lo globally. But even the Taiwanese nickname for Rodriguez is suddenly beating the global nickname for Jennifer Lopez.

8. Causation? Correlation?

Paul the Octopus was credited with picking winners. Mick Jagger got blamed for backing losers. The country with the third-highest interest in Paul the Octopus was India (which is amazing, given 4).

We've put together a public spreadsheet of the charts and data in this blog post for you to create your own versions.

Posted by Robin Moroney, Communications Manager, Google Asia Pacific

Indonesians cast their ballots

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

187 million voters are heading to the polls in Indonesia today, the world’s third largest democracy. In this year’s elections, over one-third of voters are casting ballots for the very first time. Many of them are quite tech and mobile savvy, which is why we’ve partnered with NGOs to encourage developers to create apps that provide easy access to information about the elections, the candidates, and their political platforms.

We’re also commemorating this occasion on Google.co.id with a special doodle that depicts a vote being cast in the Indonesian way — using a nail to punch a hole in the ballot paper, before it is folded and dropped into a box.

Throughout the day, check out our Elections Hub at Google.co.id/elections to stay on top of the latest news and videos as the votes come in.

Posted by Shinto Nugroho, Public Policy and Government Relations Manager, Google Indonesia

World Cup trends: Asia’s far-from-hometown heroes

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

In last week’s installment of World Cup search trends in Asia, Ben Kwon, a US-based follower of this blog, raised a good question: how do countries that aren’t playing in the tournament decide which teams to root for? Despite there being no homegrown teams amongst the semifinalists of Argentina, Brazil, Germany, and the Netherlands, World Cup fever is alive and well in Asia.

So, which of these four teams are most popular in which Asian countries?

We looked at Google searches as a proxy for fandom. It’s no big surprise that host nation and perennial futebol favorite Brazil is extremely popular across the region: from the Philippines to South Korea, the soccer samba-ists are the favorite final four team by far. But you might be surprised to know that Argentina has a legion of supporters in Bangladesh and India’s West Bengal—fans in that region have generally been split into two camps between the Latin American rivals.

The German national team outperforms the Netherlands in searches across the region. Particularly in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and Hong Kong — where the black-red-gold jerseys have also all but sold out — the madness for the Mannschaft has spiked around every one of their games. But who knows, searches for the Dutch oranje might just surge if they ride their current underdog status to a victory against the Argentinians.

To our readers: what explains these search trends? Why is the South American rivalry playing out on the subcontinent? And what makes Germany so popular among so many Asian nations? We’re curious to hear your comments below.

Posted by Joyce Hau, Communications Senior Associate, Google Asia Pacific

Ramadan Mubarak!

Monday, June 30, 2014

Muslims everywhere are in a festive mood with the holy month of fasting, or Ramadan, upon us. Asia is home to the majority of the world’s Muslims, and taking a look at Ramadan-related search trends across the region highlights the diversity in how it’s celebrated.

Every year in Indonesia there is debate about when the fasting month begins. This year is no exception with searches for "kapan Ramadhan" (when is Ramadan) and "jadwal Ramadhan" (Ramadan schedule) rising from May onwards. Many people are searching for the official government start date, which may or may not be the same as what is determined by Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah, the two largest Muslim organizations in the country. Each has their own method, which means Muslims across Indonesia will begin fasting on different days.

In Malaysia, the top trending query is “pinjaman bazar Ramadan” (loan bazaar Ramadan). Food bazaars are an important part of the Malaysian Ramadan tradition, and many small business owners take time off from their regular businesses and borrow money to set up stalls at Ramadan bazaars which are visited by throngs of people after sundown. This Google Trends graph illustrates just how closely Malaysians correlate bazaars with Ramadan.

The month long celebration is a special time for families to come together, and to explore old and new traditions. YouTube channel Raya Bergaya brings together different artists, contributing over a thousand videos with special Ramadan content including entertainment, cooking, animation, music, and drama. You can learn how to make kuay teow goreng (fried noodles), a popular dish for buka puasa (breaking fast), or listen to Ramadan tunes.

For more tips on how to get organized, get prepared, and get together for this month, visit google.com/ramadan. We’ve created this Ramadan hub to help people get the most out of the holiday with help from Google products like YouTube, Maps, Hangouts, Google+, Keep and Play, so you can save time and enjoy great content that you can share with friends and family. From Malaysia all the way to Morocco, you can enter your location and get content that is most relevant to you, like a popular cooking show on YouTube or the countdown to sunset.

Wishing you a blessed and happy Ramadan!

Posted by Zeffri Yusof, Communications Manager, Google Malaysia

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