Indonesian Fashion Bloggers

With a population of 238 million people, Indonesia has the potential to be one of the countries in the world that has the largest number of bloggers.

This can be seen from the fact that since the blog was introduced in Indonesia in the early 2000, the number of bloggers has increased three times in 2009.

What's interesting is that according to Indonesia Matters, the only site that provide blog ranking, the chart toppers are fashion bloggers who are mostly young ladies.

Please find below an article on this matter that I have quoted from Maverick, a Jakarta based PR agency.

The Rise of Fashionista 2.0

When blogging started to develop in Indonesia in the early 2000s, many people were skeptical. Some wondered if it was only a passing trend, others fretted about telling it all over the internet. In spite of all these concerns the number of Indonesian bloggers has tripled from those early days to around 6,340,000 today, according to blogger.com. Add this figure to Wordpress and Multiply databases, and the number comes easily up to about 10 million.

There has been a shift on what’s popular among blogs though. In the early years the most popular blogs were IT-based blogs. Then came public affairs and socio-politics, together with personal journals about daily life.

In 2009, however, blogs dedicated to hobbies and lifestyles, particularly fashion, started to take off. Today the chart toppers, at least in Indonesia Matters – the only blog ranking list in Indonesia so far – are fashion bloggers Diana Rikasari (http://dianarikasari.blogspot.com), Evita Nuh (http://jellyjellybeans.blogspot.com/), Dotie ‘Eclectic Du Jour’ or Michelle (http://glistersandblisters.blogspot.com/).

Diana Rikasari (http://dianarikasari.blogspot.com) was one of the early bloggers. Starting in 2007, her blog had first mover advantage and has been featured in well-known teenage magazines such as Cosmogirl, Kawanku, GoGirl and B’Girl. She loves Bloop, a local fashion brand, so much that the company asked her to launch her own fashion line ‘Diana Rikasari for Bloop Endorse’ on December 2009. Her blog is #1 in Indonesia Matters website and her influence stretches to 2,629 visitors per day.

Perhaps the enfant terribe of Indonesian fashion blogs is Evita Nuh (http://jellyjellybeans.blogspot.com/), who is only 11-years old but has a precocious fashion sense that would put Hollywood celebrities to shame. Her prosaic writing style and taste in clothes has propelled her to become one of Indonesia’s top bloggers, commanding a readership of 200 visitors per day.

Yet another current top blog in the charts is Cotton Ink (http://cottonink.blogspot.com/), which is also the brand for a line of clothes. Started in November 2008, this local brand by Carline Darjanto and Ria Sarwono has succeeded in building an avid loyal fan-base. The clothes are simple, yet interesting and considered cute since people could wear it in any way they like and as far as their creativity goes.

Then there is Fashionese Daily (http://fashionesedaily.com/) where Indonesia’s fashion and beauty fans could get information about fashion and makeup, meet other fashion and beauty enthusiasts, discuss topics in the forum and even submit articles.

Amalia Sari, one of the founders of @dandanpolfriday, mentioned some important factors that make fashion and lifestyle tweets and blogs getting more popular; “People, especially girls, love to show-off. In term of stuffs, you could get fashion stuffs cheaper and easier by buying it online in which leads us to the Internet phase. 

Regarding fashion and lifestyle Twitter accounts, Twitter accommodates us in term of easiness of sharing links with others. 

The phenomenon of fashion and lifestyle blogger also supported by magazines that keep putting young bloggers and online shops in their articles and in return, it creates buzz among the people.”