The archive · Commerce & Marketplaces · Strategic decision · 2010–2026
Bukalapak's warung-marketplace bet ends in a gaming pivot — $1.5B IPO to exit
Indonesia's first listed tech unicorn quit physical e-commerce in 2025 after Shopee and TikTok took the market, then turned gaming into 85% of revenue.
Bukalapak (PT Bukalapak.com)
What the business is
Bukalapak is an Indonesian e-commerce and financial-services group that began as a marketplace for micro, small and medium enterprises; after ending physical-goods sales in 2025 it focuses on gaming and virtual products through Multi Realm Games, the Mitra merchant network and digital investment services.
Starting capital：$1.5B raised in Indonesia's biggest IPO (August 2021); earlier backers included Ant Group, GIC and Microsoft.
How it started
Bukalapak was founded in 2010 in Bandung by Achmad Zaky and co-founders from the Bandung Institute of Technology as a simple way for small businesses to sell online. It grew into one of Indonesia's largest marketplaces focused on micro, small and medium enterprises outside the top cities, and by August 2021 — eleven years after founding — it listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange as the country's first tech unicorn, raising $1.5B with backers including Ant Group and GIC.
What happened
The listing valued the warung-marketplace story highly, but competition hardened: Shopee, TikTok-controlled Tokopedia and China's cross-border sellers won Indonesian consumers, and Bukalapak reported a Rp593.23B loss in the first nine months of 2024. In January 2025 the company said it would stop selling physical goods, with final orders by February 9, and transform itself around virtual products such as mobile credits, streaming vouchers and gaming. The pivot quickly reshaped the business: by H1 2026 revenue was Rp3.99T, up 29%, and gaming — run through Multi Realm Games with brands Lapakgaming, Joytify and Itemku across more than 15 countries — generated Rp3.5T, about 85% of the total, while adjusted EBITDA turned positive.
No ending yet — it is still running.
Background
Bukalapak was Indonesia's flagship warung-economy bet: a marketplace founded in Bandung in 2010 so micro and small merchants could sell online, with the Mitra network bringing inventory to the country's millions of small shops. Backed by Ant Group and GIC, it became Indonesia's first listed tech unicorn in August 2021, raising $1.5B in the country's biggest IPO and debuting up 25%.
The thesis collided with a harsher market: Shopee, TikTok-controlled Tokopedia and China's cross-border sellers captured Indonesian consumers, and Bukalapak lost Rp593.23B in the first nine months of 2024. In January 2025 it announced it would stop selling physical goods — final orders by February 9 — and refocus on virtual products and gaming.
The pivot worked financially faster than most exits from e-commerce: in H1 2026 revenue rose 29% to Rp3.99T, gaming generated Rp3.5T (about 85% of revenue) through Multi Realm Games across more than 15 countries, and adjusted EBITDA turned positive even as mark-to-market losses on its Allo Bank investment produced a headline net loss.
Bukalapak's story is now the retrenchment-and-redirection of a category pioneer: it still runs Mitra and investment services (BMoney, with over Rp6T in assets), but the company that IPO'd as the champion of Indonesia's small merchants is now primarily a cross-border gaming business.
What has to be true
- The warung long tail was real but defensible only at the edges: once Shopee and TikTok chased it with subsidies and logistics, Bukalapak's marketplace economics broke.
- Going public in 2021 gave it a balance sheet and retail investor base that let it survive a strategic restart instead of shutting down.
- Gaming and virtual products fit what Bukalapak already had — digital distribution, merchant reach and payment rails — with higher margins than physical e-commerce.
- Multi Realm Games' international expansion (15+ countries, 70+ payment methods) made the pivot less dependent on Indonesia's saturated home market.
What can be applied
An early winner can still lose the category: Bukalapak owned the warung narrative but not the consumer endgame, and survival meant abandoning its founding marketplace for gaming.
Aftermath
As of 2026-07-28 Bukalapak is a listed company mid-transformation: physical-goods e-commerce ended in early 2025, and H1 2026 revenue rose 29% to Rp3.99T with positive adjusted EBITDA, led by gaming (Rp3.5T, about 85% of revenue) through Multi Realm Games' Lapakgaming, Joytify and Itemku brands across more than 15 countries. Mitra and BMoney remain part of the group, and the company reported a first-half net loss driven mainly by a Rp1.75T mark-to-market loss on its Allo Bank investment.
Sources
- Bukalapak up 25% after raising $1.5 bln in Indonesia's biggest IPO
- Indonesia e-commerce firm Bukalapak to stop selling physical goods - report
- Bukalapak extends positive EBITDA streak in Q2 despite first-half net loss
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