WIR, a creative technology group of companies established in 2008 by a group of Indonesians, has been making its mark around the world.

Its AR&Co. unit has become Asia’s biggest Augmented Reality (AR) company, receiving awards in Silicon Valley for the Best AR Campaign for two years in a row, and with projects in the United States, Asia, Europe and Africa.

AmCham Indonesia sat down with the WIR Group’s Board: Chief Executive Officer Daniel Surya, Chief Innovation Officer Michael Budi, Chief Technology Officer Jeffrey Budiman, and Chief Business Development Officer Peter Shearer and discussed the group’s role as a pioneer for AR in Indonesia and what the AR industry here is all about.

AmCham Indonesia: How did WIR first come into being?

Daniel Surya: WIR was started in 2009, with only 20 people, and we now operate with approximately 300 people. The focus is simple, it is a creative technology group of companies based in Indonesia that focuses not only in brand and branding, but also building platforms for Augmented Reality, and our main focus is to file and register patents for our creations. We now have five global PCT patents covering 148 countries. WIR stands for We, Indonesians Rules/Rocks, so we believe that Indonesians have the same opportunity to have a strong presence in the global arena. That is the reason why we have built the first Indonesian company that is pure technology based but still can connect to the brand environment.

Our position is very straightforward – it is a new breed of creative technology group of companies. Jakarta is the head office, while we have another five offices in key cities, one in Silicon Valley, New York, Barcelona, Singapore, and Malta. We are doing a lot of projects in the globally and everything is being made in Indonesia. We serve over 20 countries, with more than 1,000 different projects.

We have five units, with three focusing on Augmented Reality (AR) technology and the other two focusing in brand building.

AR&Co is the world's leading and Asia’s largest Augmented Reality developer company and was considered by many as the pioneer that introduced the technology to the region. Under AR&Co, we do have our own exhibition arm, named ARTX, to educate people about AR, starting in Indonesia to Malaysia, Vietnam, and Brunei Darussalam. We have DÄV, a measurable one-on-one interactive media company based on AR, and one more is Mind Stores. Mind Stores is an AR and Virtual Reality (VR) partnership stores network where trusted retailers and virtual store owners meet. 

DM ID and Redspace are more strategic brand consulting and digital agency. DM ID has worked with blue-chip companies such as Indosat Ooredoo, Myanmar Destination branding, BJTI Port, Astra Life, etc where everything was developed here – from the brand strategy to its visual language, but not the advertising since we are not an advertising agency, nor PR.

That’s just a glimpse of WIR. You can get more info through our website at www.wirglobal.com

Can you explain what is AR and can you give examples of what WIR’s tech units have done in relation to AR?

Jeffrey Budiman: To make it easy, the concept of AR is the opposite of VR. If we use VR, we observe through spectacles to see a new world, whereas AR has to have an element of the real world being augmented with digital content. Since its inception, AR&Co. has always been focused on customizing AR to what the customers need.

Michael Budi: We have done projects in many countries including Indonesia itself, Singapore, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand, Hong Kong, Nigeria, and Spain. We are currently working on various books in Spain to help boost their sales. In the United States itself, we have just launched Star Trek collectible pins that come to life with Augmented Reality.

Through experiences over the years thus making our success rate very high, and the result is usually measured not only by the number of interactions but also from a successful increase in sales.

Our media placement company, DÄV was launched in August 2015. We have thousands of display devices installed in retail spaces where consumers do not have to own a device to view an interactive AR content from a product packaging, and possibly getting attractive incentives. DÄV is also the only AR-based media company in the world that is also offering analytics to its clients..

We also have Mind Stores, which is a unit that was initially started to help Indonesian women – mothers especially – to help increase their family’s income by giving them the opportunity to start their own business by becoming a virtual store owners of trusted retailer brands without such a high initial investment. We started this in June 2016, and within three months more than 5,000 people have signed up as store owners. We combine both AR and VR to simulate an actual physical shopping experience anytime, anywhere. For retailers, it is now difficult for them to apply for permits, and to obtain affordable land to open their physical stores. Mind Stores is the answer to this, where everyone who applies can bring their stores everywhere.

Why did your tech companies decide to choose AR as a focus?

Peter Shearer: Without realizing it, I think we are all living in the AR age. Secondly, we have the capacity to build capable AR applications. Lastly is that we can solve problems across pillars of industries in many aspects. Since the beginning, we believed Augmented Reality will be the future platform for anything – it is just a matter of time. We do have the expertise and we do believe that AR will play a significant role in the future.

Daniel: As a creative technology company, we believe that in the future, it will be a mixed reality where virtual and reality will be one. That is why we started an AR company way before people started talking about AR. We have believed since 2009 that it will be like what we have predicted.

What do you think about the potential for the AR industry in Indonesia to develop?

Peter: If we look at the market, we believe that it is very large. Especially if we talk about Indonesia’s large population. We see this as something that is able to become interesting yet applicable for all aspects of society – especially if we talk about the fact that this is not limited only to entertainment but to all industries. We have done projects for industries such as property, entertainment, retail, and we have talked about hospitals and the automotive industry. So if we talk about potential, then it will touch all layers of industry. Since we started in 2009, we have entered almost all industries. This is just the beginning and there is still a big potential for development.

What are the challenges in building an AR company, especially in Indonesia?

Peter: I think in terms of hardware – not all layers of society have hardware that would support AR. However, in the future, I believe hardware will not be an issue anymore.

Jeffrey: I think the next challenge is that not everyone knows what exactly AR is. However, the good thing is that Indonesians really love to learn. We still have the opportunity to teach them more on what AR is. All brand owners that we have met, as well, are very enthusiastic to learn and implement AR technology for their products. The challenge is, from where should they start? They are so fascinated with the technology but they just do not know where to start. I believe that is where we are different than other companies.

Other companies would just say: “This is the future technology platform that I’m going to give you.” And they do not know where to start from. Whereas we are: “Let’s be realistic and do what is relatable for people today.”

It can also be things that will bridge them so that when they start using more sophisticated technology, they are used to it already. They may not know that it is an AR – they just interact and get the benefits.

Daniel: I think the ecosystem for technology in Indonesia is still being developed. The limitation, however, is almost none. We had the choice of becoming a company that is simply following the trend such as e-commerce or going towards a different path such as purely technology. We cannot simply depend on the government since they may have other priorities, but we have to continue moving forward to build something that has not been done by other companies and bring the Indonesia name overseas, so that once we have reached the global market, Indonesia itself is the one which will benefit. We see this limitation as our biggest asset.

Why are we so grounded in making this happen? Again, it is about being relevant to the market. Many things need to be considered. One example can be the Internet connection in many areas that is not stable as of yet – that is something where it will become a benefit because that means developing something successful in Indonesia would mean it would be even better when being put in other parts of the world with better Internet connections.

Any plans for WIR tech units to venture into connecting AR and the Internet of Things?

Jeffrey: We do not close the opportunity to go there, as long as we can find the right platform that can be useful – highly relevant to the market.

Daniel: We are currently scaling up. We are in a position where we need to speed up for the next three to five years so that we can truly be one of the global players. We must have good products and be truly an AR player that can dominate not only Southeast Asia, but also globally which includes all Asia, US and European markets.