Also in the news is the fundraise of Circledoo, a social network skills-sharing online platform in Indonesia

Jack Ma to be Indonesia’s e-commerce adviser

Indonesia has officially appointed Jack Ma, Founder and Executive Chairman of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, as the steering committee adviser of the Roadmap E-commerce Indonesia, as per a report by Kompas. Ma officially accepted the offer following a meeting with President Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo in Jakarta in September 2016.

In addition to the e-commerce, Ma and Widodo had also discussed a number of other issues, such as human resources and policy-making processes in India.

Also Read: Jack Ma talks about why Alibaba will last for 102 years

Announced in early 2016, the Roadmap E-commerce Indonesia contains seven points on digital economic development efforts, including logistics, funding, consumer protection, communications infrastructure, tax, education and cyber security.

GoMechanic secures seed funding from Orios Venture Capital

Car repair and automobile servicing startup GoMechanic has raised sun undisclosed amount in seed funding from Orios Venture Partners and angel investor Dhianu Das.

These funds will be used for expanding partnerships with car service centres and customer acquisition.

Founded in April 2016, GoMechanic is a technology-enabled branded network of service centres with a promise of original spare parts, warranty on services and free pick and drop facility. GoMechanic targets over 4,000 services/month by the end of 2017. With an average ticket size of INR 7,000 (under US$100) and hybrid inventory model, GoMechanic plans to become a significant branded service centre player by 2018.

Indian likely to ban Alibaba’s UC Web Browser over data theft

India has started investigations into the allegations of stealing of datas of its users by Chinese companies. As part of the investigation, the government has put under scrutiny UC Web, the browser owned by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, If found guilty, UC Web may be banned in the country, according to The Economic Times.

“Complaints have been received against UC Browser that it sends mobile data of Indian users to servers in China. The matter is being looked into,” a top official told the news paper.

Also Read: Jack Ma: Alibaba to invest more in the ASEAN region

UC Browser claimed to have over 100 million monthly active users in India as per a report last year while globally, its user base is nearly 420 million.

Indonesia’s Circledoo raises US$200K seed funding

Circledoo, a social network skills-sharing online platform in Indonesia, has secured US$200,000 in seed funding from MB Capital and a few other undisclosed investors.

The fund will be used to develop team and to run marketing programs, which will be done mostly through collaborations and events.

Circledoo will conduct Jakarta Skills Festival in September and November to capture and showcase the very best of Indonesia’s young minds, whose skills will change the nation.

The brainchild of Marwoto Soebiakno, Tasa Nugraza Barley and Rusdi Indradewa, Circledoo is a peer-to- peer skills sharing platform that enables users to exchange skills, ideas and expertise. As per the company, Circledoo is a solution to Indonesia’s skilled labor gap, acting as an effective informal education platform.

On the platform, everyone can easily share their skills, expertise or great ideas to other people through offline meetups (at this early stage). They can do it either for free or they can also choose to be paid, as the platform is equipped with an online payment system.

The post Captain’s Log, Aug 24: Jack Ma is Indonesia’s e-commerce adviser; UC Web under scrutiny over data theft in India appeared first on e27.