By SACHIN V. GOPALAN

Indonesia’s digital economy is entering a new phase.

For more than a decade, the focus has been on growth. Expanding internet access, accelerating
digital payments, attracting technology investments, and bringing more businesses online have
rightly dominated the conversation. The results have been impressive. Digital platforms have
transformed how Indonesians shop, travel, work, and access services, while creating
opportunities for businesses of all sizes to reach new markets.

Yet as the digital economy matures, a different question is beginning to emerge. The challenge is
no longer simply how to make the digital economy bigger. The challenge is how to make it work
better for everyone.

Every successful economy is built on infrastructure. In the physical world, roads, ports, electricity
networks, and logistics systems allow businesses and communities to connect and grow. These
foundations are rarely the most visible part of an economy, but they are often the most important.
The same principle applies in the digital world.

While much attention is paid to applications, platforms, and consumer-facing technologies, less
attention is given to the invisible systems that allow digital commerce to function efficiently at
scale. These foundational layers increasingly determine who can participate, how easily
businesses can connect, and how innovation spreads across an ecosystem.

Indonesia now has an opportunity to strengthen this foundation before the next wave of digital
growth arrives.

Growth Has Created New Silos

The platform economy has been one of the great success stories of Southeast Asia’s digital
transformation.

Digital platforms have accelerated innovation, reduced barriers to entry, and connected millions
of consumers with merchants and service providers. They have become powerful engines of
economic activity and have helped bring many businesses into the digital economy for the first
time.

But success has also produced an unintended consequence.

As platforms have expanded, they have often developed their own ecosystems, standards, and
commercial networks. Businesses frequently need to integrate separately with multiple systems.
Data remains fragmented. Customer relationships are spread across different environments.
Smaller players can struggle to participate effectively without significant resources.

What emerges is not one digital economy, but many parallel digital economies operating side by
side.

For large companies, managing this complexity may be possible. For smaller enterprises, it can
be a significant challenge.

This matters because Indonesia’s economic future will depend heavily on its MSMEs. More than
65 million MSMEs contribute roughly 60 percent of national GDP and account for the
overwhelming majority of employment across the country. Their ability to participate fully in
digital commerce will play a critical role in determining whether digital growth becomes broadly
inclusive or increasingly concentrated.

A healthy digital economy should not require businesses to choose between competing
ecosystems. It should provide mechanisms that allow them to participate across them.

The Case for a Neutral Commerce Layer

This is where the concept of a neutral digital economy layer becomes relevant.

A neutral layer does not replace existing platforms, nor does it seek to compete with them. Instead,
it operates beneath them, providing common infrastructure that enables different participants to
interact more easily regardless of which platform they use.

Think of it as the digital equivalent of a public highway system.

Roads do not compete with businesses. They allow businesses to reach customers more efficiently.
Ports do not replace manufacturers. They enable trade. Shared infrastructure creates value
because it lowers friction and expands participation.

The same logic applies to digital commerce.

When businesses can connect through common infrastructure rather than building separate
integrations for every platform, costs decline and opportunities expand. Entrepreneurs can spend
more time innovating and less time navigating fragmented systems. New entrants can participate
without needing to negotiate access to every ecosystem individually.

Consumers benefit as well.

Greater interoperability can create more choice, better services, and a more competitive
marketplace. Rather than being confined within individual digital environments, consumers gain
access to a broader and more connected economy.

This is the role that neutral commerce infrastructure initiatives such as ION seek to play. Their
objective is not to centralize control, but to reduce dependence on any single point of control.
Neutrality matters because it creates trust. It ensures that participation remains open and that
innovation can occur throughout the ecosystem rather than only within dominant platforms.

Why This Matters for Indonesia

Indonesia’s digital ambitions extend far beyond online shopping or payment transactions.
The country is seeking to build a modern digital economy capable of supporting inclusive growth,
improving productivity, and strengthening competitiveness across industries. Achieving these
goals requires more than successful platforms. It requires resilient infrastructure.

The experience of digital payments offers a useful lesson.

The success of interoperable payment systems has shown how shared infrastructure can unlock
innovation while preserving competition. Consumers can transact more easily, businesses can
reach more customers, and providers can continue differentiating themselves through the quality
of their services rather than exclusive control of access.

Commerce could follow a similar path.

As artificial intelligence, digital identity, embedded finance, and cross-border trade become
increasingly important, the ability of different systems to work together will become a strategic
advantage. Economies that reduce fragmentation will be better positioned to capture future
opportunities.

There is also a broader governance dimension.

Around the world, policymakers are grappling with questions about digital sovereignty, market
concentration, and data governance. As digital infrastructure becomes more important, the issue
is no longer simply who builds technology. The issue is who shapes the rules that govern
participation within the digital economy.

A neutral layer offers one way to address these concerns. By creating shared infrastructure that
remains accessible to a wide range of participants, it helps ensure that growth remains open,
competitive, and inclusive.

Building the Foundations of the Next Digital Economy

Indonesia has consistently demonstrated an ability to adapt technology to local needs.

From financial inclusion initiatives to digital payment innovation, the country has shown that
digital transformation can be designed around national priorities rather than imported wholesale
from elsewhere. This approach has helped create solutions that are both scalable and relevant to
local realities.

The next stage of digital development should follow the same principle.

The objective should not simply be to build larger platforms. It should be to build stronger
foundations.

Foundations that allow MSMEs to compete on a more level playing field. Foundations that
encourage innovation across the ecosystem rather than concentrating it within a handful of actors.
Foundations that enable participation, resilience, and long-term growth.

Because in the end, the most successful digital economies will not necessarily be those with the
largest platforms.

They will be the ones with the strongest infrastructure beneath them.

Indonesia has an opportunity not only to grow its digital economy, but to help define what a more
open and connected digital economy can look like for the rest of the world.

The time to build that foundation is now.

Sachin V Gopalan is the CEO of Indonesia Economic Forum which is the Incubating Agency of
Indonesia Open Network (ION) being launched in July 2026. He is also Head of Steering
Committee of ION, which is as a model for open, interoperable digital commerce infrastructure
in Indonesia and Southeast Asia.