Applications Lead Indonesia’s IDR 132 Trillion Creative Economy Investment

KBRN, Jakarta: International investors are increasingly pouring capital into Indonesia's application subsector, which has been officially designated as one of seven presidential priority areas.

Minister of Creative Economy Teuku Riefky Harsya reported this trend during a press briefing in Jakarta on Monday, December 22, 2025, noting that the sector’s priority status is a key driver in making Indonesia a competitive destination for global creative technology investment

“Applications became the highest investment recipients in quarters 1-3 of 2025. This shows a positive growth trend in Indonesia's digital-based creativity sector,” said Riefky during the 2025 Creative Economy (Ekraf) Annual Report event in Jakarta as quoted by Antara.

The application subsector includes various fields such as fintech, e-commerce, AI-based applications, and entertainment platforms. According to processed data from the Ministry of Investment and Downstreaming/Invesment Coordinating Agency (BKPM), investment in the application subsector reached IDR 40.94 trillion (USD 2.4 billion) during the first three quarters of 2025.

Cecep Rukendi, the Deputy for Strategic Development, added that application development is a top career choice for the younger generation and serves as a benchmark for creative industry trends, followed closely by the games subsector.

“Likewise in exports, until this third quarter, the one that is rising is games, it used to be culinary, fashion, crafts, and then publishing, but now publishing is actually being outperformed by games,” Cecep explained.

Following applications, the highest investments were recorded in fashion at IDR 26 trillion and crafts at IDR 22.37 trillion. Additionally, the culinary sector received IDR 20.38 trillion, while music, game development, and the film, animation, and video sectors also secured significant funding.

Total investment in the creative economy industry reached approximately IDR 132 trillion, dominated by investors from Singapore, Hong Kong, the United States, South Korea, and China. Despite this growth, investment remains concentrated in Java, prompting the ministry to look toward regional expansion.

“In the future, we will encourage creative economy investment into other provinces outside of Java. We have outlined this plan in the Draft Presidential Regulation on the Creative Economy Master Plan (Rindekraf) 2026-2045 and the Strategy for Strengthening Creative Economy Institutions in the Regions,” Riefky concluded. ***