Users of Jongla will get 50MB of free daily data. This is a move to target Indonesia’s

generation of mobile-first users, the chat app’s CEO tell e27

Jongla, a Finnish cross-platform messaging app, yesterday announced a new partnership with

Indonesian telecom provider XL Axiata to provide users of its chat platform with 50MB of free

daily data.

The deal is part of a joint aim of both parties to get Indonesians online. This will help Jongla —

available on iOS, Android, Windows Phone and Firefox mobile OS — extend its user base,

while XL Axiata will take care of the marketing push in the Southeast Asian country.

“Indonesia is one of the fastest growing mobile markets in the world with a population of

almost 260 million people and about 25 per cent smartphone penetration rate. According to

study by OnDevice, Indonesians have currently two to four instant messaging apps installed on

average. This is clear evidence that they have not yet made up their mind when it comes to a

preferred IM (instant messaging) solution,” Riku Salminen, CEO, Jongla, told e27.

Just last week, the Helsinki-based startup raised €3.4 million (US$4.25 million) in Series B

investment from a group of private investors that included JSH Capital Oy, Ingman Finance

Oy, Kontino Invest Oy and Holdington Ltd Oy — bringing its total raised capital to €7.3

million (US$9.1 million).

“We in Jongla believe that we have seen just a tip of iceberg and the whole potential of

Indonesian market is still untapped. There is a whole new generation that is going to be

connect to mobile Internet (for the) first time with a personal device… We have made our app

not only extremely light, but also very data-savvy, to overcome the challenges in today’s

Indonesian infrastructure to make better messaging and connectivity for Indonesians,”

Salminen added.

One of the ways Jongla said it would be using the funding from last week is to scale the

business globally, and with this partnership, it looks that the firm isn’t wasting any time on

that front.

The app currently offers interactive stickers, push-to-talk messaging, photo and video sharing,

YouTube integration, etc.