Between Koprol and Foursquare, it’s a battle of popularity in Indonesia

It’s easy to think that Foursquare is more widely adopted by Indonesians than the homegrown Koprol when you make your way around Jakarta, Bandung, and the surrounding areas. You can see more check ins on Foursquare than on Koprol in many popular city spots and there’s a lot more venues listed on Foursquare. But is it really the case? Is Foursquare really more popular than Koprol? The following is an updated answer to a question posted on Quora.

Unfortunately there aren’t any regional numbers available from Foursquare and I do wish they would release their numbers for each country the way Facebook does (Twitter has the same problem). Until such time there’s no way to directly measure regional popularity based on the number of checkins or users. Overall, though, Foursquare has already amassed more than six million users as of this month.

Koprol, operating primarily within Indonesia, reached a million users in November. You can almost say the entire user base, aside from the 75,000 who signed up prior to the Yahoo! acquisition in May of last year, was built up in just six months. The majority of Koprol users use Java phones and according to the company last year, 80% of its users access it from Opera mini.

Koprol’s lack of a BlackBerry app contributes to the reason why few picked up on it early on but they’ve since rectified it and the app was just recently updated. On the other hand, BlackBerry is popular primarily in major cities while the majority of Koprol users reside outside of the big smoke according to Yahoo Indonesia’s country lead Pontus Sonnerstedt. This may be why they’re not that visible to those of us who hang around the metro areas.

A BlackBerry app is one of the reasons why Foursquare’s adoption was so quick. Being on the phone of choice among the hip and the popular, it contributed to the viral adoption of Foursquare in Indonesia.

Koprol signed a deal with Indonesia’s top local phone maker, Nexian several months ago to be featured on their Java phones but there’s no word on its popularity among Nexian users. Neither company has yet to reveal the numbers.

Most iPhone and Android users tend not use a service if it has no native app, so that’s definitely a barrier to adoption right there. Koprol now though, has a much better mobile web app which can be accessed from http://touch.koprol.com. While it’s optimized for touch-screen phones, it also works on desktop browsers.

If we’re going to consider the design of the full website being a factor in adoption, it’s not exactly comparable because you can’t check-in on Foursquare from its website while Koprol works from both standard and mobile browsers. It’s true though, Koprol’s website is a lot less attractive, it doesn’t look fancy at all, while Foursquare offers a clean and polished look.

There’s no game mechanics on Koprol so it may not attract the same crowd as Foursquare’s who considers it a game site as many Indonesians do. Those on Koprol however see the conversations as its attraction and its communities are stronger and much more tightly knit. Since its inception in early 2009, Koprol already has more than 80 regional communities formed around the service and many of which came together well before Yahoo knocked on its doors.

So the answer to the question on whether Foursquare is more popular than Koprol in Indonesia is still debatable as long as there’s still no comparable numbers. Foursquare is definitely more visible in big cities and is more upscale in its adoption, while Koprol has greater grass roots and community support.

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