State-owned telecommunications firm Telkomsel and technology company GoTo Group have formed a joint venture to expand their gaming business in the Southeast Asian market. The joint venture, Majamojo, will be set up by Telkomsel subsidiary PT Telkomsel Ekosistem Digital and GoTo subsidiary PT Aplikasi Multimedia Anak Bangsa, with the former holding a majority stake. Majamojo, formally PT Games Karya Nusantara, will focus on game development for mobile platforms. The company is slated to form strategic partnerships with third-party gaming developers and create an integrated platform leveraging the variety of services in the GoTo and Telkomsel ecosystems.
“We are aiming for Majamojo to strengthen Indonesia’s gaming ecosystem in Southeast Asia,” Majamojo president director Jungwon Hahn said in a statement on Wednesday.
The mobile gaming business in Southeast Asia has grown by approximately 180% from 2014 to 2017, according to data from gaming market research companies Newzoo and Niko Partners. The companies also predict that the mobile gaming business will continue to see rapid growth in the next five years. Tokyo-based market research company Shibuya Data Count estimated the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of the gaming industry in the region at 8.5% in the period of 2020 to 2025.
GoTo strategic partnership head Reggy Susanto said he expected the joint venture to strengthen Indonesia’s gaming industry and facilitate the development of homegrown digital talent. “[Majamojo] has tremendous resources to become the largest gaming company in the region,” Reggy said in the same statement.
Gaming is one of the few industries that grew in 2020 despite the pandemic-induced economic slowdown. Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry data show that the apps and gaming industry contributed Rp 24.88 trillion (US$1.7 billion) to the country’s economy that year, accounting for 2.19 percent of the total GDP. The gaming industry grew 4.47 percent in 2020.
Feb 24, 2022, The Jakarta Post
(https://www.thejakartapost.com/business/2022/02/24/telkomsel-goto-join-forces-to-expand-in-sea-gaming-business.html)