A vendor checking her phone as she waits for customers at a batik shopping centre in Jakarta. Indonesia’s retail market was ripe for disruption, with trade largely carried out by small family stores strung out over some 6,000 inhabited islands with poor infrastructure on one side and a burgeoning smartphone-toting middle class, hungry for goods on the other. — AFP
Traditional members of Indonesia’s Baduy tribe shun footwear and live in woven bamboo houses without electricity, harvesting honey from natural beehives and weaving intricate traditional fabrics by hand. Some younger members then sell the stuff on Instagram.
"My wife weaves the fabric, while the honey bottles are supplied by friends,” said Danif, 27, who goes outside the tribal area to recharge his smartphone at a kiosk for 2,000 rupiah (14 cents). Some Baduy people, particularly those from the outer part of the tribal area, are more open to the outside world now and sell their products online, he said.
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