Instead, Koprol became one of Indonesia’s first big start-up success stories, acquired by Yahoo Indonesia in May 2010 and growing quickly ever since. Now, Koprol has 1.5 million members in Southeast Asia, 90 percent of whom are in Indonesia.
On July 7 the Koprol team at Yahoo Indonesia held a press conference to announce several new features they’ve been working on. After the acquisition, the Koprol team got to work on making their application even better, with new features and a new look. With Koprol 1.0, users “checked in” at venues and added personal reviews. With the new Koprol, they can do much more.
The social network helps users connect with others in their area by letting them browse profiles of nearby users and introducing them to popular spots, whether in their home city or around Southeast Asia. Users can form communities with other Koprol members, and Satya said there was a community meet-up happening every week in cities throughout Indonesia.
“This shows that Koprol has achieved the goal of helping users make friends,” he said.
During the press conference, Satya displayed Koprol’s revamped design at new.koprol.com, which features a new interface for its desktop and mobile Web sites, using a consistent look across both platforms.
The new look does create a better experience and the location-seeking function is faster and more accurate than it was a couple of years ago. The new user interface streamlines the process of checking in, writing a review and posting a photo. Koprol is also now more integrated with Yahoo, a bonus for new members who already use Yahoo’s services. When a user first registers, an option appears to merge Koprol and a Yahoo account, letting users sign in with a Yahoo username and use Flickr to upload photos of venues they visit.
Koprol members can also find other users with similar interests through Hot Tags, a similar concept to Twitter’s “hashtag” feature, which lets you follow a topic that interests you by clicking on keywords marked with a hash (#) symbol. Hot Tags provide a means to track a collective mood regarding a venue or event, helping users decide where to go on any given night.
Another new feature on Koprol is Stamps, which members can send to their friends as a testimonial about their personality. Stamps are available with descriptions such as “Awesome”, “Cool”, “Celeb”, “Cute”, “Joker” and “Sexy,” and are visible in a user’s profile.
They is also a reward system and a clever way for Koprol to boost the traffic and encourage users to write reviews, the core function of its service. Users must earn their stamps, accumulating 240 points through various activities on Koprol — posting updates, pictures or comments; or checking in and reviewing locations — each of which garners up to 10 points. A “Stamp Box” on their profile automatically counts the points accumulated until a new Stamp is unlocked.
At the moment, Koprol is available for major mobile platforms including Android and has worked with AHA Internet broadband, Telkomsel and Nexian to draw in more users. Pontus Sonnerstedt, Yahoo Indonesia’s country manager, said that these innovations in Koprol may encourage new mobile internet users in Indonesia.
Apart from improving the product for users, Koprol has been hard at work on their business plan. The Hot Tags feature, for example, has become a part of their monetization strategy, as businesses can pay to have certain topics promoted. Koprol has also created a “Deals” directory where users can see promotions at venues near them.
These features are part of a broader Koprol for Business section, launched in February, which enables merchants to disseminate news of promotions and discounts. Koprol for Business gives every merchant a profile page to interact with and promote their product to Koprol users. Universal Music, for example, has launched a photo contest in which the prize is a trip to Singapore to watch a concert. Sonnerstedt says 3,000 other merchants have created pages, including Sony Music, Burger King and 7/11 convenience stores.
Involving social media in their promotion campaigns has increased merchants’ page views by 50 percent, Satya said. His goal is to make Koprol the go-to marketing solution for small and medium business enterprises. Satya said they also planned to expand their reach in the Philippines.
