20180934 bukalapak agent

A kiosk in Jakarta serving as a Bukalapak "agent." Its owner buys his daily supply of goods through the company's smartphone app. (Photo by Erwida Maulia)

Indonesia's Bukalapak connects kiosk shoppers to the web

Unicorn uses mom and pop shops to reach archipelago's poorest

TOKYO / JAKARTA -- On a narrow street behind towering office buildings in central Jakarta, Mulyono has been running a small kiosk for the past four years. Until recently, the 31-year-old small-business owner had been procuring his daily supply of goods -- grocery items like instant noodles, coffee sachets, shampoo and soap -- from local distributors. That started to change in June, when a salesman from Indonesian e-commerce startup Bukalapak showed him how to purchase his supplies on its smartphone app.

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