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The mega forum launches e-commerce mobile app, new features and a social campaign on its 16th-anniversary

Ardyanto Alam, Head of Product Development of Kaskus, explains the new features

Indonesia’s first and biggest online forum Kaskus has forayed into e-commerce by launching a mobile marketplace app called Kaskus Jual Beli to mark its 16th anniversary.

Additionally, Kaskus is also launching a social campaign MAR16ERAK to extend a helping hand to the victims of the forest fire and haze that broke out in Sumatra and Borneo recently.

“Kaskus began as a forum with a mission to connect Indonesians through social commerce and community, and we are taking it further now with our new features,” Ardyanto Alam, Head of Product Development at Kaskus, said in a press conference at its Jakarta office.

While users have been using Kaskus to trade various kind of goods, this is the first attempt by the company to turn it into an organised online marketplace.

Apart from the new mobile app, the firm has added new features to its web platform such as a verified seller system, joint-account feature, merchant dashboard, shipping and feedback system, and a resolution centre in order to make the trading process more seamless and secure. It has also enhanced its premium membership system with Kaskus Plus.

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Through MAR16ERAK, Kaskus calls for users to make donations to purchase N95 masks and medications for victims of forest fire and haze victims across seven cities — Palembang, Riau, Jambi, Bengkulu, Padang, Palangkaraya, and Pontianak. The donations are collected through an online bazaar event, poster competition, Kaskus Plus registration, and social media campaign.

Kaskus was founded in 1999 by Andrew Darwis when he was a university student in the US. It is in Alexa’s top 10 list of Indonesia’s most accessed websites with more than eight million registered users.

The forum has become a prominent entity in Indonesian pop culture through its own set of ‘Kaskus lingo’ and a strong sense of community.

The post Indonesian online community Kaskus forays into e-commerce appeared first on e27.

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