Author: admin heyokha

On a recent stroll through Senayan City mall, I saw something that perfectly captured the current consumer moment in Indonesia: a small, blink-and-you-miss-it booth by Chinese EV maker Xpeng.

But despite its humble exhibition, the hype was real. Their X9 model? Completely sold out. Next batch? Not until June 2026.

XPeng exhibition in Senayan City mall.

Despite its small booth, crowds were forming to see inside the cars

Go towards West Jakarta and Chagee, a Chinese tea brand, launched with a bang. One of their newest branch in West Jakarta in Puri Indah Mall resulted in three-hour lines, just to get a sip of their viral cheese-topped tea drinks. It was less of a store opening and more of a cultural event.

At the same time, the Denza D9 (from BYD) took over the Indonesia Stock Exchange billboard with a bold message: Car of the Year, 2025.

Rather than a “takeover,” these moments show how quickly Indonesian consumers embrace products that match their lifestyle — whether they come from Japan, Korea, or China. And for local malls, dealerships, and marketing agencies, that means more traffic, more deals, and more commissions.

The BYD Denza Flex

Let’s talk about Denza for a second. Their D9 electric MPV didn’t just quietly enter the market. It announced its arrival in ALL CAPS.

• Giant billboards outside the IDX and along main roads
• Crowned Car of the Year and Best High MPV EV by Otomotif 2025
• More advertisements on one of the busiest roads people commute on

We weren’t kidding about the advertisements everywhere

In the luxury EV category, BYD is increasingly catching up, and by mid-2025, its wholesale market share climbed to 3.8%, overtaking brands like Wuling and closing in on Hyundai and Suzuki.

Chinese brands are no longer side quests. They are contenders

Source: GAIKINDO

For context, this growth also means more work for Indonesian distributors and service providers who partner with these brands — showing how the value chain doesn’t stop at the factory gate.

In retail terms, the shift is even more telling:

BYD entered the top 10 by mid-2025, reaching 3.5% retail share in just 18 months. That means these cars aren’t just being stocked—they’re being driven.

Source: GAIKINDO

XPeng, while not as loud in its marketing, is just as methodical. At the 2025 GIIAS auto show, they made waves with:

• Local production of the X9, their flagship MPV
• A rollout plan to reach 70% of cities in Indonesia
• A smart cockpit experience powered by Snapdragon chips and AI

It’s the equivalent of launching a Tesla Model X, but priced and tailored for Southeast Asian sensibilities: luxury feel, family space, and tech bells without the Western price tag.

Oh, and they’re sold out. Did we mention that already?

The Real Engine: Taste

Here’s the thing: Indonesia isn’t falling for gimmicks. The success of these brands comes down to one simple fact:

They understand what the Indonesian consumer wants.

• Spacious family MPVs (check)
• Luxury interiors with massage chairs, a fridge, and screens (check)
• Price points that sit just under their Japanese counterparts (double check)

Why does this work so well?

According to BPS (Central Bureau of Statistics) data, over 60% of Indonesian households are multi-generational, making MPVs the preferred format over sedans or hatchbacks.

Add to that Jakarta’s infamous car-centric infrastructure — in 2022, Google Mobility data showed Jakartans walk 50% less than the global urban average. So when you go out, you go in comfort.

And when comparing prices:

• The Denza D9 starts at around IDR 1.3B, while the Toyota Alphard goes for IDR 1.5–1.7B.
• The XPeng X9 undercuts the Hyundai Staria by nearly 20%, with more features.

So yes, comfort + prestige + a price cut = a winning formula.

Us simulating ultra luxe living whilst beating Jakarta traffic

️ Other Case Studies of the Vibe-Market Fit: Pop Mart, Skintific, Chagee, and Oh!Some

Pop Mart: Limited Editions, Unlimited Hype

Pop Mart officially entered Indonesia in 2023, but its real breakout moment came in 2024 when it launched stores in Grand Indonesia, Kota Kasablanka, and Summarecon Mall. At key launches, queues reportedly lasted 2–3 hours, just to enter the store and secure a blind box collectible.

Social media exploded with unboxing videos, and resale values of some figurines hit 3x original price on local marketplaces.

Today, Pop Mart operates over 10 stores and pop-ups across Greater Jakarta and Surabaya, with more coming.

Chagee: When milk tea goes luxe

Chagee, a Chinese premium tea chain backed by Gen Z hype and minimalist aesthetics, launched in Indonesia in April 2025 at PIK Avenue. The opening weekend saw lines stretching up to three hours.

They now operate 5+ locations and are expanding aggressively — pairing high-end product quality with mall-center real estate.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3 hour long wait times during the grand opening of Chagee at Puri Indah Mall. Families were seen eager to take photos of the opening day goody bags and cups that looks very reminiscent of Dior’s luxury packaging – another tactic of selling “attainable luxury”

Chagee is less “hangout spot” and more “Apple Store for tea.” With drinks priced from IDR 40–50k, they hit the sweet spot between aspirational and affordable. Now present in 7+ major malls—including fX Sudirman, Puri Indah, MOI, Lotte Mall, and Epiwalk—the brand has entered with a bang.

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chagee created a whole campaign promoting another store opening in Gandaria City mall. Created hype by inviting prominent Kpop singer Chen le from NCT. Hundreds flocked to see him and Chagee is now associated with celebrity

Skintific: Skincare, Simplified

Skintific, the Chinese skincare brand with science-led formulas and minimalist branding, has quietly dominated Shopee’s skincare rankings, consistently appearing in the top 5 since early 2024. It has become the #1 retinol cream on the platform.

Their local growth strategy?

• Collaborations with Indonesian KOLs
• Smart TikTok-style reels
• Skin-analyzing vending machines in malls

They’ve opened 20+ offline counters in Watsons and Guardian stores this year, and have plans for dedicated brand stores in 2025.

According to Compas, a Business Intelligence research firm, Skintific has reigned as the #1 brand with the highest marketshare of 4.1% in skincare

Oh!Some & Miniso: Affordable Aesthetic

Miniso now has over 150 stores across Indonesia, but its newer rival Oh!Some is quickly catching up — reportedly opening 25 stores in the past 12 months, many of them in second-tier malls where Gen Z foot traffic thrives.

They’ve taken the Muji formula and added K-pop flash sales, Squid Game notebooks, and skincare fridges. It’s millennial minimalism meets Gen Z maximalism — and it’s working.

So What?

As investors, here’s what we’re watching:

• Can Japanese incumbents keep up, or will they lose premium market share?
• Are local dealerships and service networks ready to support the surge in Chinese brands?
• Could this be a blueprint for China’s playbook in other emerging markets?

Final Thought:

This isn’t just about one country’s brands gaining ground — it’s about a more competitive marketplace that’s forcing everyone to up their game.

For Indonesian consumers, it means more choice, better pricing, and products that fit how they actually live.

For local businesses, it’s a signal to double down on efficiency, strengthen supply chains, and build brand loyalty — because the competition is only getting sharper.

Luxury is no longer about badge status. It’s about smart pricing, high comfort, and a little TikTok clout.
And the brands — local or foreign — that read that brief well will be the ones in the fast lane.

 

Tara Mulia

Admin heyokha

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The crypto market’s latest rally isn’t just about Bitcoin and Ethereum making new highs (again). This time, the spotlight belongs to something… boring. Not in the sense of ‘uninteresting’, but in the sense of ‘infrastructure-grade’. And in crypto, boring might just be the new brilliant.

We’ve written about this before in our blog Stablecoins 101: Chips, Claw Machines, and the Subtle Rebuild of Money, where we compared stablecoins to arcade tokens — fast, functional, and trusted inside high-stakes arenas.

But now, with the passing of the GENIUS Act in the U.S., stablecoins are leveling up from arcade chips to financial infrastructure.

What Are Stablecoins (Again)?

Stablecoins are the crypto world’s answer to volatility. Unlike Bitcoin or Ethereum, they’re designed to be boring: 1 coin = 1 dollar, always.

They combine the flexibility of blockchain with the stability of fiat. You get the speed and programmability of crypto without worrying that your “money” might drop 10% overnight because someone tweeted something.

The 3 Flavors of Stability

 

Fiat-backed: You send $1, you get 1 token. The issuer holds your $1 in cash or Treasuries. When you redeem, the token gets burned. Think vending machine: 1 coin in, 1 snack out.

Crypto-backed: You lock $150 in ETH to mint $100 in stablecoins. Overcollateralization protects against volatility. If ETH crashes too far, your collateral gets liquidated.

Algorithmic: No real backing. Stability via code and incentives. Worked until it didn’t (hi, UST). Most of these now come with a side of trauma.

Source: Bloomberg

USDC (Circle)’s market cap nears $63 billion USD which is bigger than Ford Motors ($45 billion USD)

USDT (Tether)’s market cap nears $160 billion USD which is worth more than Wall Street giant Morgan Stanley founded in 1935 ($146 billion USD)

Why Use Them?

• Transfer money globally in seconds
• Avoid volatility when trading crypto
• Escape inflation in fragile economies
• Use DeFi without touching a bank
• Get paid in dollars, anywhere, anytime

Popular Players

So, What Changed? Enter: The GENIUS Act

In July 2025, the U.S. passed the GENIUS Act: Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins. Finally, a clear federal law for payment stablecoins.

Key Changes:

1. Only licensed entities (banks, OCC-chartered nonbanks) can issue stablecoins
2. Must be 100% backed by USD or short-term Treasuries
3. Must offer monthly audits, segregated reserves, AML/KYC compliance
4. No interest allowed on stablecoin holdings
5. Consumer protection rules + priority claims if issuer goes bust

 

Effectively: stablecoins are now legal, safe, and boringly bank-grade.

The Rally Heard Round the Blockchain

Source: Bloomberg

Source: Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index, which is designed to measure the performance of the largest cryptocurrencies traded in USD

Since the GENIUS Act passed:

• Global crypto market cap surpassed $4 trillion, marking one of the biggest surges of the year.
• Ethereum (ETH) rallied to a 2025 high of $3,795, fueled in part by the GENIUS Act’s prohibition on yield-bearing stablecoins — which, according to Deutsche Bank, has driven more capital toward ETH-based DeFi for yield opportunities.
• Altcoins like SOL, LINK, and XRP posted double-digit gains, with Solana reaching its highest since February.
• Circle and Coinbase stocks rose, while BitMine, Bit Digital, and other ETH-holding firms surged between 2.3% and 8%.
• The BlackRock Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) rose over 10%, while the Ethereum ETF soared more than 36% in July.
• Dynamix Corporation (DYNX) skyrocketed 26.2% after announcing a merger with Ether Reserve to create “The Ether Machine.”

 

With regulatory clarity now in place, institutional investors seem to be re-entering the chat — this time with bigger wallets.

Hot Take: Regulation isn’t the kryptonite — it’s the rocket fuel. With the U.S. lending legal cover, capital is flooding in. Four trillion reasons and counting.

Impact? Bullish for Both Crypto & Treasuries

Stablecoins are now required to hold billions in cash or T-bills. That means massive new demand for U.S. debt. Every $1 of stablecoin issued means $1 parked in U.S. Treasuries.

Circle, for instance, will likely grow their reserves into the hundreds of billions. More issuers will emerge. The U.S. gets cheap financing. Crypto gets regulatory clarity.

Everyone wins (except unregulated offshore tokens).

Winners & Losers

Winners:

• Circle (USDC): Already compliant, positioned to scale
• U.S. Treasury: Billions in new T-bill demand
• Banks & Fintechs: Legal path to issue their own stablecoins
• Consumers: Safer digital dollars with redemption rights
• DeFi: Clearer rails for payment and lending infrastructure

 

Losers:

• Tether (USDT): Offshore, less transparent, facing delisting
• Algorithmic Coins: Not legally usable for U.S. payments
• DeFi Maximalists: More regulation, less decentralization
• Non-compliant Exchanges: Will need to delist or adapt

Why It Matters Globally

In emerging markets, stablecoins are already used more than local banks. They’re trusted, 24/7, borderless. With legal clarity now in the U.S., these tools can go mainstream without fear of a Terra-style rug pull.

This isn’t just a crypto win. It’s a blueprint for programmable dollars, with auditable reserves, and global accessibility.

Final Thought: The Dollar’s New Skin

The GENIUS Act doesn’t reinvent money. It reissues it — wrapped in code, guarded by law, and designed for the internet.

We used to say stablecoins were arcade tokens.

Now they’re starting to look more like digital Treasuries.

The chips are real. The stakes are global. And the table just got a lot bigger.

 

Tara Mulia

Admin heyokha

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“The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled.”

Well, Plutarch ,the Greek Platonian philosopher, never paid an electricity bill for a data center.

Energy vs Intelligence: Tennis and Terawatts

Padel might be the weekend warrior’s sport of choice across Indonesia, but for the past two months, it’s been tennis that dominated the world stage. Between the French Open and Wimbledon, fans were treated to back-to-back showdowns of human endurance — none more epic than Carlos Alcaraz vs. Jannik Sinner.

We weren’t kidding about the Jakarta padel craze. We spotted 2 courts being built less than 5km of each other

In the French Open, they pushed each other to five-and-a-half hours of clay-court cinema. Then came Wimbledon, where Sinner defeated Alcaraz in a tight 4-set final. These guys weren’t just hitting balls; they were burning 4,000+ calories, draining glycogen stores, chugging electrolyte shakes, and downing sushi rolls like it was an endurance buffet.

Carlos Alcoraz’s euphoric collapse after winning the French Open

Jannik Sinner’s well-deserved win for Wimbledon weeks after his loss against Carlos

All of this for one thing: to win.

Now imagine this: the energy they burned over five hours? Your AI assistant could rival that just generating a five-second video of a cat doing the Macarena.

Sport has its logic. AI? It just has inputs.

Ask, and Ye Shall Be Billed

We live in an age where asking a chatbot to write your best man’s speech is easier than asking your actual best man. The only thing easier? Forgetting that every witty AI response comes with a side order of carbon emissions and an electricity tab that would make a Bitcoin miner blush.

Here’s a stat to ruin your next AI-generated love poem: creating a single five-second AI-generated video consumes more energy than running a microwave for over an hour.

Remember when people said every Google search is like boiling a pot of water? Well, AI said, “Hold my beer.”

Source: McKinsey

One Token at a Time: The Physics of Thought

Unlike humans who can blurt out nonsense in bulk, large language models generate intelligence the way monks transcribe scripture — one token at a time. Literally.

Each word, each fragment of a sentence, each “uhm… actually”—is calculated, processed, and produced token by token. And each token? That’s energy. A lot of it.

Meta’s open-source model Llama 3.1 405B burns through 6,706 joules per response, enough to move you 400 feet on an e-bike or power your microwave for eight seconds.

And that’s just text. Want a picture of a sloth eating ramen on the moon? Double it. Want a video of that same sloth moonwalking while eating ramen? That’ll be 3.4 million joules, please.

We’re not generating intelligence anymore. We’re mining it.

 

From LOLs to Terawatts: The Rise of the Inference Empire

Training the model is expensive, sure — GPT-4 reportedly cost over $100 million to train, consuming enough energy to power San Francisco for three days.

But that’s just the beginning. Most of the energy burn comes after the model is trained. That’s the inference stage — the moment when you, the user, type “Explain inflation like I’m five” and the AI replies “Imagine you have 10 cookies and suddenly the price of cookies triples.”

That cute reply? Brought to you by thousands of GPUs, humming fans, and water-cooled server racks spread across sprawling data centers. As of 2025, inference accounts for 80–90% of AI’s computing power consumption.

 

⚡ The Coming Energy Crunch: AI Is Not Your Average App

Unlike traditional apps, which got more energy-efficient over time (thank you Moore’s Law), AI is like that kid who eats more and more every year and doesn’t stop growing.

The real kicker? AI’s energy demand is projected to rise so steeply that by 2028, it could consume as much electricity annually as 22% of all US households.

Meanwhile, most data centers are still powered by fossil fuels. Some AI companies are racing to build new nuclear power plants (seriously, Meta and Microsoft are trying), but those take time. In the meantime, expect more methane-powered generators and a few eyebrows from environmental regulators.

 

Enter: Aura Farming, But for Terawatts

In another corner of the internet, 11-year-old Rayyan Arkan Dikha, better known as Dika, has been dancing on the prow of a canoe during traditional boat races called “Pacu Jalur” in Riau. His charisma, sunglasses, and swagger sparked a global meme sensation: “aura farming.”

Dika with 1000x aura points

                                                                     

From K-pop bands like Enhypen, corporate companies like Duolingo, and world famous DJ Steve Aokie – the aura farming goes crazy

The dance has been recreated by everyone from Travis Kelce (star football player and also Taylor Swift’s boyfriend) to the Savannah Bananas baseball team. The phrase now refers to doing something cool, repetitive, and charismatic to build vibe capital — and Dika’s doing it without touching a watt.

Meanwhile, our digital models farm aura a little differently: by torching through megawatts.

So the question is: which aura is more sustainable?

One is rooted in tradition, community, and culture. The other? Burned into silicon and powered by a carbon-heavy grid.

 

Decoding the Compute Layer: The Cost of Brains in the Cloud

Let’s break this down with our Heyokha lens: in our framework of ABC — AI, Blockchain, Compute — compute is the often-forgotten but absolutely vital third sibling. We’ve touched on the “A” and “B” factors in our latest blogs It’s the protein shake behind AI’s intellectual six-pack.

And compute, quite literally, means energy, chips, servers, water, and real estate.

• Want smarter AI? You need bigger models, which means more parameters and more chips.
• More chips? You need more cooling. Some data centers are guzzling millions of gallons of water per day just to keep it all from melting down.
• And unless someone invents an energy-efficient way to hallucinate cat memes, we’re going to need a lot more juice.

 

The Unintended Consequences: When Chatbots Demand Power Plants

The trend is clear: every company wants to “AI-enable” everything. From your fridge recommending recipes to your Excel sheet auto-analyzing Q3 earnings.

But this intelligence arms race comes at a steep cost. As AI gets baked into everything, it threatens to reshape our energy grids, strain our infrastructure, and increase your electricity bill.

Yes — utility companies are already striking deals with data centers that may pass on higher energy costs to you and me. In Virginia, the average ratepayer could pay an extra $37.50/month thanks to data center expansion.

But the cost isn’t just measured in dollars.

Water, the original cooling tech, is now a silent casualty of the AI revolution. According to Bloomberg, about two-thirds of new AI data centers since 2022 have been built in water-stressed regions, from Arizona to India to the UAE. A single 100-megawatt facility — enough to power 75,000 homes — can use 2 million liters of water per day, or the equivalent of 6,500 households’ daily water needs.

Water-stressed areas see the most growth for data centers to be built

Source: Bloomberg

As more data centers rely on evaporative cooling systems, often using fresh or even potable water, communities from Texas to the Netherlands have begun protesting. Because while servers need cooling, so do crops, households, and ecosystems.

So when your smart speaker tells you a joke, just know you might be paying for it twice: once in laughs, and once in kilowatt-hours.

 

So What?

We’re not here to be anti-AI. In fact, we’re bullish on the productivity and innovation it can unlock. But as investors, observers, and humans who still like forests and breathable air, we should ask:

• Who benefits from this AI-driven energy boom?
• Which companies are selling the shovels in this new “intelligence gold rush”?
• Will AI be the catalyst that accelerates nuclear adoption, or will it deepen our dependence on gas?

 

As we see it, energy is quickly becoming the new strategic battleground for intelligence. Not just oil for tanks — but watts for bots.

 

Tara Mulia

 

Admin heyokha

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Souvenirs, Snacks, and Shareholder Sovereignty

You’ve seen the footage.

Hundreds of Indonesian retail investors lining up since dawn. Not for a sneaker drop. Not for a Taylor Swift concert.

But for… Astra International’s Annual General Meeting (ASII IJ).

Yes. The AGM.

What’s the draw? The dividends? The management Q&A?

Not quite. We’re talking souvenirs.

Vouchers. Water bottles. And in recent years?

Digital blood pressure monitors. Xiaomi smartwatches. Bento boxes. And allegedly, headaches for the organizers—cue Bodrex, Indonesia’s beloved aspirin.

Tiktoks of attendees showing off their goody bags and proudly queuing

The scenes look like a scene from Comic-Con, not a corporate meeting. But perhaps that’s the point.

Sure, some come for the freebies. But many stick around for the long haul — not just for the snacks, but for the strategy.

And they’re not just showing up in Indonesia. They’re forming a quiet but powerful force globally.

Japan: Where AGMs Meet Gift Culture

Over in Japan, this retail investor culture has evolved into an art form.

According to a Bloomberg report, more companies than ever are offering gifts at their annual meetings to attract what they call “fan shareholders.” From cash vouchers to collectible items, the movement is clear: companies are courting the crowd.

In 2024, 11% of Japanese firms offered AGM gifts, up from 4% in 2021.

More than 120 companies gave cash vouchers—5x more than in 2019.

Why? Because retail investors vote.

And when activist investors start knocking, those loyal “fan” shareholders start looking a lot like defensive moats.

Source: Bloomberg

One Tokyo-based retail investor said it best:

“I get a HUB card for free drinks… I use it to treat my friends and kind of show off my shareholder status.”

It’s Buffett with a side of beer.

Why Retail Investors Sometimes Move First

In capital markets, retail investors are often dismissed as emotional, erratic, and under-informed.

But here’s a crazy thought: maybe they just think differently.

Where institutions shuffle portfolios quarterly, retail investors show up with umbrellas and lunchboxes at 7AM.

Where the pros dig through terminal screens, the retail crowd is doing Peter Lynch-style scuttlebutt:

“I use this product.”

“I saw a line at their store.”

“My kid wants that toy.”

And sometimes? That works better.

Peter Lynch Knew Before It Was Cool

In Beating the Street, Lynch tells the story of 7th graders from St. Agnes School building a portfolio.

One of Heyokha’s favorite readings

Their secret? Vibes.

They picked stocks they knew: Nike, The Body Shop, Wal-Mart. They liked the products. They saw the lines.

Two years later?

The kids delivered a 70% return vs. the S&P’s 26%. They beat 99% of mutual funds.

The lesson? Retail doesn’t mean random.

It means they observe life and invest accordingly.

Retail: The Most Underappreciated “Whale” in the Market

Let’s look at the structural trends:

Technology has made investing frictionless.

The pandemic triggered millions of first-time investors.

Commission-free trading, fractional shares, TikTok explainers, and Whatsapp groups have turned curiosity into conviction.

The numbers speak for themselves. Though it has not recovered from post pandemic levels nearing 60%, the latest number of 40% is still respectable!
Source: IDX

These retail investors:

• Sit through AGMs — some for the snacks, others for the substance (many for both)
• Vote with surprising consistency in favor of management.
• Stick around longer than most quant-driven funds.

Of course, retail investors aren’t a monolith. Some are day traders. Some are dividend die-hards. Some just want to flex their AGM goody bags. But that’s kind of the point — there’s no single archetype. Just millions of individual minds showing up with curiosity.

It’s the showing up that counts.

And it looks like they’re growing and actually sticking through.

The Indonesian Retail Stock Investors Hit Record High of 7 million in 2025

Source: KSEI

The game isn’t: “How do we get rid of them?”

It’s: “How do we build with them?”

Final Thought: Maybe the Real Freebie… Is Loyalty

Sure, the bento box is cute.

But the real ROI might be in what it represents:

People showing up.

Voting.

Holding.

❤️ Caring.

It’s easy to call retail investors unsophisticated.

But maybe they’re just early to the stuff the pros haven’t priced in yet.

And if you’re worried about following the crowd?

Don’t be.

As long as you packed snacks and got there first.

Tara Mulia and Nicholas

Admin heyokha

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The Wars May Be Short. But the Questions They Raise Are Long.

Twelve days. That’s how long the latest round between Iran and Israel lasted. But while missiles fell, satellites blinked, and markets flinched — the bigger ripple was philosophical:

What does it mean to be sovereign in 2025?

Because today, it’s not just about having borders. It’s about:

• Who controls your power grid.
• Who supplies your fertilizers.
• And maybe even… who gets your TikTok algorithm.

When war breaks out, it’s never just over there. It’s in your wheat price, your energy bill, and your supply chain spreadsheet.

We saw this movie before — in 2022. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine turned ammonia into a geopolitical weapon and fertilizer into front-page news. In our past blog Rising Fertiliser and Food Prices: Who Will Be Spared? we warned that ammonia could become the canary in the commodity coal mine.

Well, the bird is still chirping. And the war drums haven’t stopped.

The Ghost of Fertilizer Past (Still Haunting the Present)

Let’s catch up.

When Russia turned off the gas taps to Europe, fertilizer plants went dark. Ammonia prices spiked. Food prices surged. Countries like Egypt scrambled for nitrogen. Farmers in Indonesia relying on fertilizers felt the heat in their wallets — even as we sat thousands of miles from the trenches.

20% of Ukraine’s farmland remains mined, occupied or unusable

Fast forward to 2025: Brent crude jumps above $80, fertilizer prices spike again, and the Strait of Hormuz — the artery for 40% of global urea and 20% of LNG — is back in headlines.

Norwegian fertilizer giant Yara warns: “The food system is fragile.”

They’re not kidding:

• Israel’s gasfields shut down → Egypt’s ammonia supply stalls.
• Iran shuts down its plants “for security reasons.”
• A fifth of global ammonia flows face disruption.
• One more misfire in the region and breakfast gets more expensive.

It’s not just food that’s vulnerable. It’s the whole latticework of modern sovereignty.

The New Arms Race

Back to Israel and Iran.

Beyond the rockets, the deeper question lingered quietly: what happens when sovereignty includes strategic capabilities like nuclear deterrence? It’s a reminder that power today isn’t just immediate — it’s long-term, layered, and loaded with implications.

And while the ceasefire held, the spending race didn’t stop. In fact, it accelerated.

The Numbers Are Loud:

• Global defense spend hit $2.7 trillion in 2024.
• NATO’s new pledge? A whopping 5% of GDP on defense. 20% of the defense expenditures will be devoted to major equipment spending.
• Russia’s defense budget? Up 38% YoY to $149 billion (7.1% of GDP).
• Even China’s chill 1.7% of GDP translates to an estimated $290 billion.

Even traditionally neutral countries are piling in as seen in Switzerland joining the European Sky Shield Initiative (ESSI), aiming to contribute to a pan-European air and missile defense system

23 NATO countries have met or surpassed the 2% guideline – nearly 6-fold increase from just four in 2014

And 29 NATO countries have already surpassed their equipment expenditure guideline!

Source: NATO

Translation? Defense is no longer just about tanks. It’s bullets, chips, rare earths, and energy security.

We’re not just funding armies. We’re rebuilding the idea of sovereignty through industrial might:

• Chips.
• Lasers.
• Satellites.
• And all the raw materials that make those possible.

Source: The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies

The F-16 Fighting Falcon, the most common fighter jet in the world, costs $25-70 million each!

Sovereignty Is a Supply Chain and Indonesia is a Link

In the Cold War, power was measured in nukes. In 2025? It’s measured in gallium, graphite, and rare earths — the obscure elements that quietly power everything from night vision goggles to missile guidance systems.

You can’t launch a drone strike without a critical mineral checklist.

And here’s the kicker: most of the world’s refining capacity sits in China. Gallium, graphite, and rare earths? All subject to export controls now. China may still dominate the refining process — with over 80% control over rare earth processing — but Indonesia is one of the few nations actually blessed with the raw ingredients. This makes us a crucial character in the geopolitical drama unfolding between the West and China.

Let’s talk nickel.

Indonesia’s got the world’s biggest stash. But instead of shipping it out raw (as we used to), we’re processing it here. We banned unprocessed exports, built refineries, and started climbing the value chain — like adults putting on our own oxygen masks first.

Indonesia is now one of the few places on earth where raw minerals meet refining ambition meets geopolitical non-alignment.

• China wants in — to lock up supply.
• The West wants in — to de-risk from China.
• Indonesia? Sitting in the middle, holding the rocks everyone wants.

The result? We’re not just a passive supplier. We’re a player.

Call it “strategic mineral non-alignment.” A sweet spot — if we play it wisely.

Danantara, Indonesia’s sovereign wealth fund, is making moves to invest more nickel down streaming projects

Food for Thought: What Really Makes a Country “Safe”?

It’s not just missiles anymore. Sovereignty now spans:

• Energy security (ask Germany).
• Fertilizer self-sufficiency (ask Egypt).
• Data governance (ask the EU).
• Rare earth access (ask the Pentagon).

The irony? While AI headlines steal the spotlight, it’s the boring stuff — beans, bandwidth, and bauxite — that determines who thrives when the world gets shaky.

Maybe in 2025, the price of sovereignty isn’t measured in warheads, but in warehouses.

Investor Takeaways: What to Watch

1. Resilience > Efficiency
   The “just-in-time” era is over. Countries and corporates alike are paying up for redundancy, not speed.
2. Defense Is the New ESG
   What was once controversial is now compulsory. Defense capex is a new secular theme — from drones to defense semis to supply chain hardening.
3. Supply Chains = Strategy
   Follow the materials. Gallium, ammonia, nickel — the commodity isn’t the story. The control of it is.

Final Thought: The Game Has Changed — But Are We Playing It?

The 12-day Israel-Iran flare-up may have faded from headlines. But its message is loud:

In a world of flash wars and fragile supply chains, sovereignty is no longer a given. It’s something you build. And defend. And fund — year after year.

So whether you’re a policymaker, a CEO, or a curious observer of markets, ask yourself:

“What part of my strategy still assumes the world is predictable?”

Because today’s sovereignty isn’t about waving a flag. It’s about owning your food, your fuel, and your future.

 

Tara Mulia

Admin heyokha

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Remember when we said AI will eat software?
Turns out, we underestimated its appetite.
Because next on the menu is AI itself — and who’s doing the eating? Philosophy.

Check out our previous blog: AI Just Ate your CRM on our website

A 2,400-Year-Old Blueprint

Long before we worried about chatbots hallucinating your medical bill, Aristotle laid down a neat framework for life: SMLSR.

• Substance — it exists on its own.
• Material — made of physical stuff.
• Living — grows, reproduces.
• Sentient — feels and perceives.
• Rational — thinks about thinking.

 

A rock? Just Substance + Material.

A plant? Add Living.

A cat? Add Sentient.

A human? The full stack: Substance, Material, Living, Sentient, Rational.

Aristotle called rationality the soul’s unique gift — our edge over every other beast.

Today? We’ve built machines that can fake Sentience frighteningly well. But true Rationality? That still sits squarely in the human corner.

Viral post asking Chat GPT to simulate being human for a day. Surprisingly well-written and touching. Sentience checks out.

The Big Myth: More Compute Solves Everything

Most companies still treat AI as an engineering puzzle:
More data. Bigger models. Faster chips.

But that’s like pouring rocket fuel into a car with no steering wheel. You don’t just get there faster — you crash harder.

Here’s the truth: All AI is biased.
Bias isn’t a glitch — it’s a choice. It’s in the data we feed it, the trade-offs we hard-code, the outcomes we reward.

As code increasingly governs what we see, buy, believe, and trust, the values embedded in that code shape everything.

What gets rewarded.
What gets suppressed.
Who profits. Who’s left behind.

This isn’t an IT problem — it’s a philosophical one.

Patterns Are Not Purpose

AI today is brilliant at one thing: spotting patterns.
It predicts the next word, the next pixel, the next move — with staggering accuracy.

But should it?
What patterns matter? Which truths do we protect? When does convenience trump accuracy, or vice versa?

These aren’t engineering questions. They’re moral ones.

MIT’s Michael Schrage and David Kiron say this shift is a battle between bounded rationality and bounded patterns. Generative AI doesn’t deduce like a philosopher — it imitates. When conflicting goals collide? It buckles.

Bright minds in MIT have already been researching this topic.

Michael Schrage is a research fellow with the MIT Sloan School of Management’s Initiative on the Digital Economy

David Kiron is the editorial director and researcher of MIT Sloan Management Review and program lead for its Big Ideas research initiatives.

Google Gemini serves as a cautionary tale.

In early 2024 the model began adding forced diversity to historically specific prompts—think Black Vikings or an Asian officer in a WWII German uniform. Two worthy aims, accuracy and inclusion, collided with no hierarchy to resolve the tension. The backlash, apology, and shutdown that followed are what ethicists have dubbed “teleological confusion.”

Patterns only matter when they serve a purpose—and purpose is a philosophical choice.

Some examples of brands we’ve seen here in Indonesia and abroad who nail this mission first thinking:

 

• Sahabat-AI | GoTo & Indosat

The ecosystem that leverages across tech, telco, media, and governmental support

GoTo’s President of On-Demand Services, Catherine Hindra Sutjahyo showcasing the use cases of Sahabat-AI

Indonesia’s GoTo and Indosat teamed up in late 2024 to launch Sahabat-AI — an open-source large language model crafted specifically for Bahasa Indonesia and regional dialects like Javanese, Sundanese, Balinese, and Bataknese.

Its mission is clear: strengthen Indonesia’s digital sovereignty and make advanced AI genuinely useful for everyone, not just the urban tech crowd.

By weaving in local language and cultural cues, Sahabat-AI can power everything from chatbots in e-commerce apps to educational tools in rural schools — all in the words people actually use at home. So when the model faces a choice — generic global answer or locally meaningful response — its purpose keeps it grounded in community relevance and trust.

 

• Spotify | AI DJ (Voice-Request upgrade, May 2025)

Spotify’s AI DJ just got a serious upgrade: it now handles voice requests like “Play underground ’70s disco” or “Give me energizing beats for my afternoon slump.” This is more than a novelty — it lives up to Spotify’s north star to “connect fans and artists” and “soundtrack every moment.”

When deciding between obvious hits and hidden gems, the algorithm resolves the tension by favoring discovery and artist exposure over mindless autoplay loops. Listeners say it feels like having a friend who knows your taste and surprises you — because the AI’s purpose demands more than just maximizing screen time.

Purpose is the quiet super-prompt. When it’s crystal clear, AI knows how to act when objectives collide. Leave it fuzzy and you risk becoming the next Gemini-style headline.

Alignment Starts at Zero: A New Society Needs New Ground Rules

Most firms bolt on “AI alignment” after they ship the model. That’s like teaching ethics to a lion after you’ve set it loose in a daycare.

If AI is this powerful, the real question isn’t can it do X?

It’s should it?

And according to whose values?

We’re not just living in an AI age — we’re living in a world where code quietly does what kings once did: it governs.

But code is invisible. So we have to ask:
Whose rules? Whose benefit? Whose blind spots?

This is why a “Responsible AI” team alone won’t save you. You need explicit commitment to:

✅ Understand the real stakes: AI won’t wait for committees to catch up.
✅ Guide it early: aim it at causes aligned with human flourishing.
✅ Build responsibly: every company owning a model should own its moral assumptions too.

One Callback to Our Last Thesis

In AI Eats Software, we said smart interfaces would wipe out clunky dashboards. But as AI replaces software’s role as the worker, trust becomes the real moat.

Power is shifting from visible tools to invisible thinking. When power shifts — central to distributed — the only anchor left is trust in the values behind the code.

What Leaders Should Really Be Doing

Good AI doesn’t just run tasks — it carries your worldview.

So map it:

• What does your AI know? (Epistemology)
• How does it label the world? (Ontology)
• Why does it do what it does? (Teleology)

Schrage calls this responsibility mapping. We call it good sense in an age of self-writing code.

Final Thought: The Last R Still Belongs to Us

Aristotle gave us a map: from rocks to cats to humans — and that final jump: Rationality.

We’ve taught machines to mimic the living and the sentient. Next up is mimicking Reason. But real Reason isn’t just data. It’s values. Trade-offs. Choosing what matters.

So before you brag about your next trillion-parameter model — check if it has a soul. Or at least a philosophical backbone.

Software ate the world.
AI ate software.
And now?
Philosophy will eat AI.

Better feed it wisely — or risk being dinner yourself.

 

Tara Mulia

Admin heyokha

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Picture this:
You’re at a noisy arcade like Timezone or Funworld in one of Jakarta’s malls lured by the flashing lights, blaring music, and a dose of nostalgia.

You swap a crisp Rp100,000 note for a plastic game card loaded with digital credits. (When I was younger, we used physical coin tokens and you had to wear pants with pockets deep enough to carry them)

Kid-friendly Vegas

You lose half in a rigged claw machine. A quarter to classic Tekken. And the rest for 7 minutes on a Dance Dance Revolution machine, feet flailing. You tap out, breathless, and redeem your hard-earned tickets — only to realize they get you exactly one pen that barely writes.

 

Did you just waste your money? Maybe.

But notice this: you trusted digital tokens over paper cash because inside the arcade, tokens are simpler, faster, and universally accepted.

Stablecoins are the arcade tokens of today’s global economy — but they don’t stay inside the arcade. They cross borders, never close, and quietly fix the pain points your bank still pretends are normal.

A Fix Hiding in Plain Sight

For all the hype around crypto moons and meme coins, stablecoins solve something far more boring — and therefore, more durable.

They answer a practical question:

How do you move dollars at internet speed, with blockchain-level transparency, and no wire fees or banker’s lunch break in the way?

They’re not here to replace money.

They’re here to upgrade money’s plumbing.

This Is Not a Revolution. It’s an Evolution.

If you look closer, stablecoins echo the big shifts we see playing out worldwide:

De-globalization? When trade routes get political and supply chains come home, people look for new rails to keep money moving, cheaply and discreetly.

De-dollarization? When countries fear dollar-based sanctions, stablecoins become a side door: a shadow dollar that’s programmable and borderless.

Decentralization? When trust in big intermediaries fades, people put faith in math. A blockchain ledger, open to all, beats a bank vault open 9–5.

Stablecoins quietly ride all three currents. They’re not protest coins or Ponzi bets. They’re pragmatic bridges from old pipes to new flows.

Why Use Them? Let’s Talk Chips

In Vegas, nobody slaps a hundred-dollar bill on the blackjack table. You use chips — faster, uniform, cashable anytime.

Heyokha Movie Favorites: “The Big Short” – specifically the scene with Selena Gomez explaining how CDOs work using the game of poker

Stablecoins? Same idea — except the casino is the global financial system.

Want to lend, borrow, or earn yield in crypto? You don’t wire money to some shady middleman. You park stablecoins on a blockchain app — better known as DeFi (short for Decentralized Finance). DeFi is just your local bank’s back office — minus the marble lobby and surly tellers.

Stablecoins make DeFi run smoothly:

• Programmable, so smart contracts do the paperwork.
• Redeemable, so trust is collateralised — real dollars and Treasuries sit behind them, verified by auditors.
• Global, so they ignore time zones and national borders.

Poker chips work because the casino cage redeems them at face value.

Stablecoins work because trustworthy issuers (like Circle’s USDC) guarantee that for every token minted, a real dollar or Treasury bill sits safely somewhere, verified by auditors.

Break that trust (hello, Terra Luna), and the market teaches a swift lesson.

Real World, Real Money

Here’s the kicker:

Tether, the biggest stablecoin, moves ~$100 billion daily, with ~90% of that volume living in emerging markets where people trust crypto dollars more than their own banks.

And this product? It’s now the backbone for tokenized Treasuries, DeFi lending, and cross-border paychecks — areas where “fast money” used to mean “expensive wires.”

  

Stablecoins rapidly becoming mainstream- in banking, groceries, and even in gaming!

When crypto kids sniff out an edge, that’s fun.

When Stripe, Visa, JPMorgan, and Citi sniff it too — you pay attention.

• Stripe scooped up Bridge for stablecoin rails and Privy for embedded wallets — so any dev can build instant crypto payments in five clicks.
• Visa & Mastercard pilot stablecoin settlement to cut costly FX loops.
• Big banks, once dismissive, now quietly sketch joint stablecoins to keep cross-border clients from drifting DeFi-ward.

It’s a game of keep-up. And the chips are stablecoins.

Old ETFs, New Tokens

Here’s your granddad’s way:

• Buy a Treasury ETF.
• Wait two days for settlement.
• Wait a month for yield.

The new way:

• Swap stablecoins for a tokenized Treasury.
• Yield streams daily.
• Cash out whenever, globally.

Franklin Templeton, the global investment firm? Doing it.

Stripe? Enabling it.

Next? Everyone who hates wire fees.

Final Thought: Chips at a Global Table

Odds you win that claw machine: 1 in 15.

Odds your bank wires your money on time: about the same on a public holiday.

Stablecoins skip both — they just work. They’re the chips on every table — Vegas or Jakarta — letting players bet, cash out, and stay liquid without asking permission.

Stablecoins won’t make you trust fiat again if you ever have doubts, but they might make you trust finance again.

No waiting room. No middleman. No banker asking what the funds are for.

Just verified, auditable, programmable value.

And maybe—just maybe—a new global monetary layer that’s not backed by belief in governments, but by math.

We don’t know if stablecoins will go to the moon, but they might build the bridge to the future.

 

Tara Mulia and Simon Chan

Admin heyokha

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Loneliness, Third Spaces, and Why Pets Are Quietly Taking Over the Economy

Last weekend at a pet shop, we stumbled upon a towering display of prams—not for babies, but for dogs. Yes, dogs. Each stroller more stylish and padded than the next.

And it made us wonder: the next time you see someone pushing a stroller down the street, will you coo at a baby—or be met with the panting snout of a Pomeranian named Mochi?

Not a shocker, really. In a world where third spaces are increasingly rare and the cost of raising a child has skyrocketed, many are turning to pets for connection, purpose, and companionship.

Welcome to the Micro-Connection Era. And no, we’re not surprised.

The Loneliest Generation? We’ve Seen This Coming

We’ve never been more connected. And never felt more alone.

According to a 2023 Harris Poll, nearly 80% of Americans would choose a completely in-person social life over a digital-only one. Globally, governments are responding with white papers, ministers of loneliness, and social strategies. Investors might want to respond too.

Because loneliness? That’s a market signal.

Sociologist Ray Oldenburg once coined the term “third places”—places outside of home and work where people gather. Coffee shops, gyms, parks, padel courts.

Now, we’re seeing the evolution: “fourth places.” Book clubs. Pottery meetups. Padel groups. According to Eventbrite’s 2023 survey, 73% of 18–35 year olds plan to attend in-person events soon. Even better? 85% of those who already did said they made a close friend.

It’s clear. Gen Z and Millennials don’t just want community. They’re building it. But when they can’t find it?

They adopt it. Fur, paws, and all.

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Previously on Heyokha…

Remember our deep dive into the Microjoy Economy—where small, emotionally potent purchases like Labubu toys reflected a shift from macro-consumption to micro-splurges? Consider this the sequel. And yes, we still believe in the power of joy per Rupiah.

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Pets: The New Social Infrastructure

When you can’t find a third space, a third species will do.

According to a 2023 OnePoll survey for Synchrony:

• 41% of Gen Z would rather spend $100 on their pet than their partner.
• 36% of Gen Z say they get more joy from seeing their pet happy than their partner.
• 42% would skip vacations to save for surprise pet costs.
• 45% would give up eating out for a year in exchange for free pet care.
• Nearly half of millennials would sleep outside in the snow if it meant their pet could live one more year.

We are not joking. But we are impressed.

And let’s talk money. Synchrony estimates that the total cost of raising a dog over a lifetime can range between $20,000 and $55,000. For cats, it’s $15,000–$46,000. In an era where human babies feel financially impossible, pets are stepping into the emotional—and budgetary—void.

Babies? Maybe Not. But Definitely a Beagle.

According to Pew Research, 47% of young U.S. adults now say they’re unlikely to have children. Why? Top reasons include:

• It’s too expensive.
• The world feels unstable.
• Honestly, they just don’t want to.

So what do they want instead?

• Something cuddly.
• Something emotionally validating.
• Something you can name after your favorite drinks or dessert without much judgement.

Hence: the fur baby boom.

In fact, Gen Z spends an average of $178/month on their pets, according to Lemonade the insurance company (2024). That’s nearly $90/month more than Boomers. Over a pet’s lifetime, that translates into luxury-brand-level spending.

And all this love for pets? It’s also changing the labor market. According to Indeed’s 2025 Best Jobs list, veterinarian is now the #1 job in America. Job postings for vets rose 124% between 2021 and 2024.

Even our career aspirations are going to the dogs. Literally.

Indonesia Is Right On Cue

In Indonesia, malls have gone from “no pets allowed” to rolling out red carpets for fur babies. Major shopping centers now provide pet-access zones, dedicated parks, hydration corners, and yes—boutique grooming services inside the mall.

 

And if you’re still wondering whether pets have made it into the mainstream, just ask Bobby.

Yes, President Prabowo’s cat Bobby is arguably the most influential feline in the country. With over 1 million Instagram followers, Bobby doesn’t just sit pretty—he rolls up to events in a customized Rp6.5 million stroller (equivalent to $400 USD), flanked by a full security detail. And when Bobby made a public appearance, even Bill Gates showed up to meet him.

1 million fans for the feline. We weren’t kidding about Bill Gates. He even gifted Bobby a whale plush toy.

Bobby rolling into Jakarta’s Pet Fest as an honorary guest, decked out in his custom stroller equipped with an iPad. Bobby is so popular he has a Wikipedia.

The message is clear: in Indonesia, fur babies aren’t just welcome. They’re VIPs.

Indonesia’s digitally native, pet-loving population makes it fertile ground for this shift. Pets, once confined to the home, are now part of the daily fabric of urban leisure—and even statecraft, apparently.

Investor Implications: It’s a Fur-Midable Market

Some might brush this off as fluff. But don’t let the tiny sweaters and diamond-studded scratching posts fool you.

This is a market.

And it’s a sticky one. Pets don’t get cheaper as they age. They get more expensive. And pet owners? They’re loyal. More loyal than… well, most customers in any other vertical.

The winners in this space will be:

• Platforms that combine quality with personalization
• Brands that offer emotional ROI, not just calories
• Services that integrate grooming, vet care, and wellness under one app, one brand, one leash

And as traditional third spaces evolve—or vanish—brands that can become proxy communities will capture not just wallets, but hearts.

In a time when people are skipping weddings, deferring mortgages, and swiping right less often than they’re checking their dog’s calorie tracker, one thing is clear:

This isn’t just a lifestyle shift. It’s a portfolio opportunity.

So the next time you pass a stroller on the street, don’t assume it’s a baby in that stroller.
It could be your next growth driver—covered in fur, drool, and a Gucci harness.

 

Tara Mulia

Admin heyokha

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Salon in a high premium mall in Central Jakarta. 1pm on Saturday. I should be seeing the last chair being fought over at this point

The salon was empty. On a weekend.

So empty, in fact, that they started offering happy hour promos on a Saturday—a time usually reserved for weddings, reunions, and revenge glow-ups.

When I asked the staff what was going on, she shared: “It’s only busy now during weekday lunch… and it’s mostly just shampoo and blow-dry. No more exclusive packages.”

Doth my eyes deceive me? Monday TO Sunday??

If the best indicator of consumer confidence could be measure by our hair, then it seems the mood has shifted from “treat yourself” to “just trim the split ends”.

On the ground, we’ve also seen another curious signal: a cigarette ad promising: “40% longer lasting.” It’s a strange pitch, but a telling one. The message isn’t about taste or image. It’s about duration.

In other words: We know you’re saving. Let us help you savor

These are not just quirky moments. They are hints of how people are recalibrating their spending.

Some data points:

• Eid holiday travel dropped 24%.
• Ramadan’s usual consumption boost never materialized.
• Sales growth for food, beverage, and tobacco? Just 1.3%—down from 7.5% last year.
• Fuel consumption dipped 1.1% during Eid.
• Debit card transactions declined 4%, while credit card growth slowed notably.

But this isn’t a tale of retreat. It’s one of reinvention.

This is Global

Look beyond Indonesia and you’ll see the same trend lines forming.

In the U.S., credit card delinquencies are creeping toward pandemic-era highs. Klarna—the “Buy Now, Pay Later” poster child—saw its losses double. Nearly half of its users paid late last year; a quarter used it for groceries.

Source: The New York Times

Consumption persists, yes—but often at the cost of savings and future spending. The mood isn’t “fear,” it’s focus. On essentials, on efficiency, and yes—on small, meaningful indulgences.

The Labubu Logic: Why Small Splurges are Big Business

We’re not seeing the end of spending—we’re seeing the evolution of how people choose to spend.

From flashy, high-ticket purchases to lower-cost, higher-yield experiences. From conspicuous consumption to curated comfort.

Because when the future feels hazy, people hold tight to the small things they can control: a quick treat, a satisfying purchase, a moment of delight.

Somewhere between coping and collecting, Labubu Version 3 dropped. With its ombré sparkle and limited availability, it sold out instantly. For many, it wasn’t just a toy—it was a moment of joy, a small win in a time when big wins feel delayed.

Labubu is more than a figurine. It’s the mascot of the Microjoy Economy.

Labubu fans flying to Singapore to get the “Merbubu” exclusive collection. In the UK, some stores had to pause selling because the crowds got too intense

If you squint past the glitter, you’ll see something quietly profound: even when wallets tighten, the need for joy doesn’t disappear. It just finds smaller vessels.

This isn’t irrational. It’s adaptive. A concept economists once called the Lipstick Index—resilient demand for small luxuries during downturns—now has a Gen Z upgrade. Call it Lipstick 2.0 or the Microjoy Index:

• Boba tea over Birkin bags
• a cold whisked matcha over Gucci
• Labubu over long-term planning

These aren’t just trends. They’re emotional hedges. Consumers are engineering their own sense of resilience through affordable indulgence, building a decentralized joy system from the bottom up.

Because when control over the macro feels distant, taking command over a tiny purchase—or ripping open a mystery box—feels like reclaiming something. You can say it’s hedonic risk management with a splash of TikTok sparkle.

Indonesia is Built for This Moment: The Story of Ci Mehong

Indonesia’s consumption culture and demographics make it a prime landscape for this trend:

• Young, mobile-first population
• Familiarity with digital scarcity (e.g. flash sales, hype drops)
• Cultural lean-in to collecting, limited editions, and bite-sized luxury

Rather than pulling back, many consumers are simply changing course with GJP (Gross Joy Product) is rising towards purchases that feel more personal, rewarding, and shareable.

Take Ci Mehong, the viral entrepreneur behind PIK Baking House.

She started with holding baking classes. Then she pivoted—fast. Now she sells premium snacks (think bika ambon and lapis legit), imported fruit, even exclusive cemetery land. All infused with her trademark spunky attitude.

Her secret? Presence. Daily videos, viral challenges, and a direct connection to 700K+ loyal followers. She built not just a product line, but a culture of inclusiveness. A space where high prices feel less intimidating when delivered with flair.

And it works. Not in spite of the times, but because of them. Her success story exemplifies how innovation and adaptability can thrive, even in challenging economic times.

Her secret recipe? Videos of her doing various viral challenges like toppling buckets of butter, daily home cooking and dress shopping achieving that “casual relatable feel” whilst keeping her sassy attitude

Final Thought: Small is the New Smart

We began this story in a salon—eerily quiet on a Saturday.

We passed a cigarette ad selling longevity over luxury.

We ended up with a glittering goblin-like toy named Labubu, a reminder that joy doesn’t have to be expensive—it just needs to be engineered right.

The consumer hasn’t disappeared. They’ve just reallocated.

From splurging on big-ticket aspirations… to investing in small, high-yield feelings.

For investors, this is a map—pointing toward the companies that understand the moment:
✅ Those that package presence, not just product.
✅ Those that master scarcity and storytelling, not just shelf space.
✅ Those that live natively in mobile culture, where virality converts faster than footfall.

This isn’t a downturn. It’s a design brief.

The next wave of winners won’t be those who wait for a rebound in old spending habits—
But those who ride the microjoy wave with precision, playfulness, and presence.

 

Tara Mulia

Admin heyokha

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