Indonesia's Telkom To Set Up Joint Venture With EBay

Telekomunikasi Indonesia (TLKM.JK, TLK), or Telkom, is set to form a joint venture with eBay Inc. (EBAY) to tap into the emerging e-commerce business in Southeast Asia's biggest economy, Telkom's chief said Monday.

Rinaldi Firmansyah, chief executive, said in a statement that both companies have signed an agreement to form a joint venture named PT MetraPlasa. He didn't elaborate on the setup capital and stake proportion held by each companies.

Firmansyah cited a survey by Frost & Sullivan that said Indonesia's e-commerce transactions' value was at $1 billion at the end of 2011. Research by MarkPlus showed the number of Internet users in the Southeast Asian country increased by 32% in 2011 to at least 55 million, "which shows huge potentials for e-commerce in Indonesia," Firmansyah added.

Telkom, 53.24% owned by the Indonesian government, posted a 20.8% increase in its revenue from data and Internet services in 2011.

With its relatively young population, increasing wealth, and a technologically savvy middle class, Indonesia is attracting investment from Internet-related companies. Google Inc. (GOOG) late last month opened an office in Jakarta.

-By Andreas Ismar, Dow Jones Newswires; 62 21 39831277; [e-mail]