CReATION: Indonesian 'Net market wowed by Astaga.com

In-your-face advertising in traditional media is helping Indonesian portal Astaga.com create enormous brand awareness. "In Indonesia, where Internet penetration is low, we realised that we had to rely on traditional media to get to non-Internet users," said Ms Margie Djajakusuma, head of marketing and sales at Astaga.com. Roughly translated as "Wow!" in English, Astaga.com's logo is similarly striking - a bright yellow splat. The company has allocated a third of its start-up capital of US$7.5 million to marketing, which it believes has helped put its growth on a fast track. At press time, the number of registered users had reached 75,000 with a daily increase of 1,000 to 2,000 users compared with 25,000 users signed at its launch in the first week of February. The site receives 1.1 million hits per day. Ms Djajakusuma believed that an annual growth of between 300 and 400 per cent was realistic as the market was still young. "Currently we occupy about 40 per cent of the market, and will continue to attract more people to our site," she said, adding, our marketing campaigns will include both above and below-the-line to popularise the use of the Internet to students and small businesses". Ms Djajakusuma noted the company was also targetting the older generation. "Many of those above the age of 40 are intimidated by the Internet either because of the technology itself or language barrier. We're telling people who have never used the Internet to come to Astaga.com, because it's very user-friendly." The company, however, remained tight-lipped about immediate campaigns, fearing other dotcom companies would copy their efforts. Rival dotcoms, Ms Djajakusuma noted, have already started an "ad war" in newspapers as competitors kick off print media campaigns. Future plans include Internet training programmes for students and adding up to 10 more channels by the end of the year. The site offers, among other things, local news content, a search engine and ecommerce facilities. Astaga.com recently introduced five new features, including online dating and games with prizes, with more features planned this month.

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