CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 1.1 Research Object Overview 1.1.1 Waze Overview Waze is a navigation and community-based traffic app, which is designed for drivers first and foremost. Waze was designed to navigate driver to the desired destination by wealth of user reported data. Waze was born in 2008 and Google who has more than 250 products and owned popular platform such as Youtube and Gmail has bought Waze in 2013. Figure 1.1 Waze Logo Source: www.waze.com The app was first developed and popularized by Waze Mobile, an Israeli company founded by Ehud Shabtai, Amir Shinar and Uri Levine, funded by two Israeli venture capital firms, Magma and Vertex, and an early-stage American venture capital firm Bluerun Ventures before it was owned by Google. Now Waze is the app used by drivers all around the world and provide 50 languages which can be customized based on the country the user living in. 1 Figure 1.2 Waze User Interface Source: Author There are several facilities the users can get in Waze, including: a. Live traffic reporting alert by users b. A plethora of voice navigation options, including celebrity voice c. Remembers commonly used routes, frequent destinations, and commute times d. Re-routing aggressively to save time e. Not only for cars, Waze is also has a motorcycle mode f. Traffic jam countdown g. Cop notifications h. Spotify integration so the users can drive while listen to music at the same time i. Provide planned drive for the future event j. Spots parking spots, gas stations, restaurants or even coffee shops k. The user can talk to Waze instead of typing l. Speed warning m. Minimize the time in traffic by finding the fastest road possible 2 1.1.2 Vision and Mission Vision To get the millions of drivers out on the roads to work together towards a common goal; outsmarting traffic and getting everyone the best route to work and back, every day. Mission To help people create local driving communities that work together to improve the quality of everyone's daily driving. 1.2 Research Background Indonesia is the fourth largerst country in the world after China, India and United States. According to Spectaor Index, Indonesia has over 256 million people living all across the region. Indonesia is predicted reaching its peak in 2062 with 324,76 million people. (Databoks, 2018) According to factsofindonesia.com, with a population growth rate of 3 million per year, Indonesia has been successfully become the overpopulated country. Over population have both postive and negative effect. For the bright side, Indonesia has a large number of human reources and labors, grow a competitive spirit for entrepreneurship and can become the market for potentially productive result. But, for the dark side Indonesia has a quite cornerning amount of employment which is 6,87 million people, high level of poverty and also a very bad mobility problem. One of the simple example of mobility problem is a traffic congestion. According to brookings.edu, rising traffic congestion is an inescapable condition in large and growing metropolitan areas across the world. That statement in fact is currently happening in Indonesia’s metropolitan cities. Jakarta for example, right now the capital city of Indonesia is on the 12th position in The 100 Most Congested Cities in the World. Jakarta citizens has to spent the average of 63 hours on the road per year, not only jakarta, another cities such as Bandung with the average of 46 hours per year, Malang at the 85th position with the average of 46 hours on the road per year, followed by Yogyakarta witch increased its 3 position from the 86th to 60th , also Padang with the average of 45 hours spent on the road and lastly Pontianak whith its 93rd position are all in the set of the lists. (DetikOto, 2018) Table 1.1 Top 3 Countries With The Most Congested Traffic In The World Rank Country Average Peak Hours Spent in Congestion 1 Thailand 56 2 Indonesia 51 3 Colombia 49 Source: The chart was made by the author based on the INRIX Reasearch 2017 For the overall score, Indonesia as a whole was ranked 2nd after Thailand with the average of 51 hours spent on the road. This is a sign traffic congestion has become a big concern in Indonesia, the inhabitants of Indonesia need a tool to facilitate space and mobilization to move places in long distance or close range. Based on the survey result done by Asosiasi Penyelenggara Jasa Internet Indonesia (APJII) 2017, The internet users peneteration in Indonesia is 143,26 Million people from the total population of 262 Million people, this means the internet users in Indonesia is more than a half of the population existed, which is 54,68%. Figure 1.3 Indonesia Internet Users Penetration in 2017 4 Source: APJII Survey Result 2017, available on: http://apjii.or.id/survei There are several devices the users can use to access the internet but based on the data collected by APJII the internet users in Indonesia is dominated by Smartphone/Personal Tablet users, which is 44,16% out of 100%. With a high of smartphone/Personal Tablet users in Indonesia, it directly affect the growth of application downloads. Today's applications are available in various platforms from messaging, social, gaming, online transportation as well as navigation applications. The emergency of downloading traffic and navigation applications began because of the increasingly progressive building of roads and congestion as the author mentioned earlier. One of the most popular navigation applications downloaded in Indonesia is Waze. In fact when Waze was claimed by Google in 2013, the application has grown rapidly ever since. According to Tribuntechno, Waze is in the 2nd position as the most downloaded navigation application in Indonesia which is 5,6% downloads. Table 1.2 Download Percentage Of Popular Navigation Apps Navigation Application Download Percentage Name Google Maps 65% Waze 5,6% Google Earth 1,4% ROUTER 66 Navigation 1% GPS Navigation and Map 0,5% Source: The chart was made by the author based on Tribuntechno Article 2016 According to Senior Director of Communication of Waze, Julie Mosler, Waze began in 2008, when a man was frustated about the GPS he had. He though a traditional GPS could be imporved by tracking local driver’s speed and allowing them to add incidents like car accidents or traffic jams. 5 Waze is the biggest community-based traffic and navigation app. It can contribute to provide traffic information and accidents that occur on the road. The users can use Waze anywhere, anytime at any occasions. Compared to other navigating apps, Waze is a driving focused navigation so it fits for those who has a vehicle or a passanger of the vehicle to use Waze for the easier mobility. Waze offers some cool features. The users can edit or add the latest road maps and routes to be more accurate and shorten mileage, the users can rely on wealth of user-reported data by other users, spot road hazards, gas stations, restaurants and also adjusting its recommendations in real time so the users can get the fastest way possible to get to the destination and avoid traffic. It recommends user to go to alternative roads so user can save the time and it is updated every seconds depend on the current situation the road is at the moment. Globally, Waze now has over 100 Million active users from 185 countries across the globe. In Indonesia, the growth of Waze is quite significant form year to year, it reached over 750.000 active users back in 2013, and in 2015 the number had increased consistently until it reached over 1.5 Million active users and now Waze in 2018 has reached over 4 million active users who use the application at least twice a day. (Marlin, 2018) On average, Navigation apps do not you as much data especially when they are really useful. But compared to other popular navigation app, which is Google Maps, Waze seems to be the best in terms of data usage. According to Country Manager Waze Indonesia, the average usage of Waze is around one hour twenty minutes until one hour thirty minutes, meanwhile the average of any other app is only at fifty minutes maximum per use. This is pointing at the fact the users are using Waze for a long trip and need Waze as the guide. The motive of why the user is using Waze because it can save the time on the road, it is relevant to their slogan which is, “save your time five minutes a day”. 6 1.2 1 0.8 0.6 Google Maps 0.4 Waze 0.2 0 Per 20 minutes Per 10 miles Figure 1.4 Data Usage Popular Navigation App Source: the figure was made by the author from WhistleOut (2018) According to Marlin, Waze is the navigation platform where the users already know where they are going, basically, the users want to avoid the mad traffic in the area so Waze has become the solution for the users to find the more convienience road trip from traffic. The ulitization of Waze really fits for crowded cities, such as Jakarta, Bandung and Bali. Moreover, Jakarta is on the list of 10 cities targeted to be the smart cities. (Paige, 2014). Fully aware of the benefit of Waze, Principal Governance of DKI Jakarta has coorperate with Waze since 2014, and it is not limited by the time, so Principal Governance of DKI Jakarta will always open about the idea Waze has to offer in the future.