of the next billion-user market. Case in point: Go-Jek, one of Indonesia’s fastest-growing startups, is an on-demand motorcycle ride-hailing software that uses digital tools to help people navigate Jakarta’s notorious traffic. Since then, Go-Jek has expanded into a range of services, such as food delivery Go-Food and payment platform Go-Pay. Founded in 2010, Go-Jek was reportedly valued at more than $9 billion in its latest funding round in January 2019. Companies that
succeed in the next billion-user market tend to combine high technology with traditional business models. Indian e-commerce retailer Flipkart has realised that many Indians have neither bank accounts nor sms marketing service credit cards. So in 2010, it launched a service that allows consumers to order online and pay on delivery. (Amazon subsequently launched the same service model in India in 2013) Walmart bought a 77% stake in Flipkart in May 2018, at a post-investment valuation
of $21 billion. The next billion user countries are rapidly rolling out advanced payment systems with active support from governments. Launched in 2016, Unified Payments Interface of India (UPI) enables consumers to transfer money directly between bank accounts in real time using their mobile phones. By August 2018, UPI transactions had grown to 312 million, an 18-fold increase compared