Bukalapak opens doors to consumers in Asia with BukaGlobal

Indonesian eCommerce portal Bukalapak has opened its doors to consumers from Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, Hong Kong and Taiwan through the launch of BukaGlobal.Co-founder and president of Bukalapak Fajrin Rasyid told BT that the chosen markets have a “sizeable number” of Indonesian residents and consumers familiar with Indonesian products. On BukaGlobal, consumers in these five markets in Asia will now be able to make purchases from merchants in Indonesia. The move, which marks Bukalapak’s first stage of international expansion, seeks to break down access, infrastructure and connectivity barriers for smaller players to compete on a global playing field, added Rasyid to the news outlet.Marketing Interactive has reached out to the company for more information.Additionally, BukaGlobal looks to address logistics challenges faced by Indonesian businesses such as the high costs of postal and courier delivery. Bukalapak is currently working with Singapore startup Janio for end-to-end cross-border logistics, according to several media reports.However, BukaGlobal is only available to sellers in Jakarta and Tangerang currently and will be open to more sellers at a later stage. Merchants will be curated based on their geographical location and past performance.Just two months back, the Indonesian eCommerce site confirmed a hacking attempt by the alias Gnosticplayers claimed. The hacker claimed to have hacked 13 million accounts. However, Bukalapak assured in a press release that confidential and important data such as user passwords and financial information “remain secure despite past attempt made on Bukalapak’s old and stale information”.Head of Bukalapak, corporate communication, Intan Wibisono said, “As a leading technology company in Indonesia, we place security and privacy of our users as our utmost important priority and no misuse of information is ever tolerated.”Read more:Bukalapak confirms hacking attempt but says data remain secureBukalapak picks PHD Indonesia for offline media dutiesIndonesians irked as The Economist labels Tokopedia and Bukalapak from SGECommerce players in Indonesia share their tips to success