<article>Indonesia’s e-commerce company <a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/tag/Tokopedia/">Tokopedia</a> has revealed plans to build its very own innovation centre in a move that replicates a strategy adopted by regional giants including <a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/tag/Alibaba/">Alibaba</a>, <a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/tag/JD.com/">JD.com</a> and <a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/tag/Lazada/">Lazada</a>.</article>

Indonesia’s e-commerce company <a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/tag/Tokopedia/">Tokopedia</a> has revealed plans to build its very own innovation centre in a move that replicates a strategy adopted by regional giants including <a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/tag/Alibaba/">Alibaba</a>, <a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/tag/JD.com/">JD.com</a> and <a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/tag/Lazada/">Lazada</a>.
In an interaction with DEALSTREETASIA, Tokopedia co-founder and CEO William Tanuwijaya said the company, which last year raised a $1.1-billion funding round led by Alibaba, is on course to build a centre for research and innovation whose benefits will extend beyond the startup and reach Indonesia’s e-commerce industry.
“It is hoped that this innovation centre can support various research related to e-commerce and be a place where entrepreneurs, government and people can take advantage of the findings, as well as push for the progress of various industries in Indonesia, not just e-commerce,” said Tanuwijaya.
While he declined to divulge investment details related to the R&amp;D centre, Tanuwijaya said the firm wants to build “the best research centre in Southeast Asia” located in Indonesia.
In a similar move, China’s second-largest e-commerce firm JD.com earlier this month announced that it plans to launch an international research and innovation centre named the Global Supply Chain Innovation Center (GSCI) focused on supply chain management.
The JD centre of innovation, which will operate in China, Silicon Valley and Chicago in the U.S., Germany, the Netherlands, and Australia, will look to bring together global industry experts, companies, universities and other institutions to work on research projects focused on new technologies and processes related to smart supply chain capabilities.
The move by JD.com is understood to be a response to competitor Alibaba&#8217;s intentions of spending up to $15 billion on R&amp;D. Alibaba had last year announced plans to set up seven research labs and recruit 100 top scientists over a three-year period in a global research programme, named the Alibaba DAMO Academy.
Alibaba’s biggest rival Amazon spent over $16 billion on research and development the previous year, more than any other company in the world.
In Southeast Asia, e-commerce player Lazada pioneered the establishment of an innovation centre when it opened the Lazada Tech Hub in Thailand in mid-2016, shortly after Alibaba’s initial $1-billion investment. The Chinese giant has since invested another $3 billion in Lazada.
According to Jianggan Li, the founder &amp; CEO of accelerator Momentum Works, the presence of an innovation centre is a positive move for the industry regionally as it would provide “systematic synergy to the ecosystem” – something that has been missing, particularly in Southeast Asia.
“A key objective for the likes of Lazada, Alibaba and Tokopedia to build this is also to have more control over the ecosystem (and fend off potential competition). They will also make it harder for anyone in the ecosystem to potentially grow too big to be threatening. So the dynamics moving forwards for smaller companies in the ecosystem would be very interesting,” he said.
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In Southeast Asia, Lazada pioneered the establishment of an innovation centre when it opened the Lazada Tech Hub in Thailand in mid-2016.

Following Alibaba, JD.com's lead, Indonesia's Tokopedia to set up innovation centre

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Following Alibaba, JD.com's lead, Indonesia's Tokopedia to set up innovation centre

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