How Alibaba-backed e-commerce unicorn Tokopedia will grow its business

Dimas Ardian | Bloomberg | Getty Images

The PT Tokopedia logo is displayed at the company’s offices in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Friday, Feb. 19, 2016. Photographer: Dimas Ardian/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Financial technology — or fintech for short — can be broadly defined as any digital innovation in financial services, such as insurance or online payments.

As part of Tokopedia’s effort to grow its fintech business, the firm recently worked with state-owned pawn company Pegadaian to launch an online gold trading platform, Tokopedia Emas.

“Starting from four cents to the dollar, you can start investing in gold, and that’s new for Indonesians,” Sentana said.

“Immediately we see a huge traction on that, and we can continuously do that by working together with our partners, even more so on the insurance lending and investments front,” he added.

Indonesia’s e-commerce market is forecast to grow up to eight-fold from $8 billion in 2017 to $65 billion in 2022, according to management consultancy, McKinsey and Company. That’s a similar growth trajectory as China’s e-commerce market between 2010 and 2015, the firm noted in an August report.