Everyone Talking about Unicorn. Is That a Big Deal to Have That?
Hint: It is better to not have one
The second presidential debate has ended few days ago. Prabowo and Jokowi spoke out their vision on food, energy, natural resources, environment and infrastructure. Overall, the debate is boring. Both candidates never touch the most substantial issues in each topics. They only talk about the nutshell, and it makes Indonesian netizen to focus on making meme instead of debating on candidate’s vision and mission.
And the most popular thing to take out from the debate is the unicorn. Prabowo loosely defined unicorn as online apps or websites. The term “Unicorn” is bigger and broader than that. Unicorn is a startup with a billion valuation, and that valuation comes with a price.
What is a unicorn?
We always talk about unicorns like Uber, Airbnb, Snap, Didi, Pinterest etc, but little do we discuss what unicorn actually means. Why are some startups given such a title? Is this title given only to the startups belonging to a specific niche?
What Is A Unicorn Company?
The term unicorn is firstly known in 2013. The very first person to introduce this term is Aileen Lee, the founder of the Cowboy Ventures. She used “unicorn” to refer 39 startups that had a valuation of more than $1 billion.
The term got the popularity because it is very very hard to hit that level. It is not that rare today. Some giant startups even reach $50 billion valuation. But in ASEAN, especially Indonesia, unicorn made a big headline.
The Dark Side of Unicorn
Most Indonesian citizen, are always proud to have 4 out of 7 unicorns in South East Asia. They don’t think about the negative implications of having not only one but 4 unicorns at once.
People know those 4 unicorns; Tokopedia, Bukalapak, GoJek and Traveloka. Two of them are e-commerce businesses, those two shows how Indonesia is consumption based society.
Tokopedia and Bukalapak are the market leader and besides them, there are many smaller startups that put their hope on Indonesia’s purchasing power.
Indonesian People Likes to Spend
Indonesian people like to spend their money. We all know it all along. We, especially millennial, like to spend their money on buying things they don’t need. And two of those unicorns, are put their business on the shoulder of the millennial's spending habit.
That spending habit made this country a consumption-based country. That’s the reason why Indonesia’s trade balance is always negative. Unlike China, Saudi Arabia, Brunei or Venezuela, Indonesia’s import volume and value is much higher than its export.
In other words, the faster the growth of Tokopedia’s and Bukalapak’s profit, the more imported goods comes into Indonesia. It is not an ideal condition since it will weaken Rupiah.
Whenever Indonesia suffered from trade balance deficit, the more depreciation Rupiah will be. So, you guys, need to think twice before you made an online purchase in Tokopedia or Bukalapak. Please make sure your purchase won’t negatively impact Rupiah.
