PT GoTo Gojek Tokopedia Tbk (GoTo Group), the largest digital ecosystem in Indonesia, announced Monday that its gross revenue for the first quarter of 2022 (1Q22) increased by 53 percent year on year to Rp5.2 trillion ($357.38 million), representing an improvement in take rate from 3.5 percent to 3.7 percent due to better monetization in e-commerce and on-demand segments.

GoTo Group said in a statement that the group’s gross transaction value (GTV) for 1Q22 also grew 46 percent year on year to Rp140 trillion ($9.62 billion).

Meanwhile, the group’s last 12 months (LTM) annual transacting users grew 29 percent year on year to 65 million, with average spending per user increasing by 18 percent year on year over the same period. Its total orders also grew by 41 percent year on year to over 656 million.

In 1Q22, the group’s adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) losses narrowed by 14 percentage points to Rp5.4 trillion ($371.19 million) from Rp6.2 trillion ($426.17 million) in 4Q21. This compares with a loss of Rp1.9 trillion ($130.6 million) in 1Q21, a figure that reflects planned capital conservation ahead of the Gojek-Tokopedia transaction to allow for cross-platform investment, and the significant impact of COVID restrictions.

“We can look back on 2021 with pride in our resilience and excellence in execution, demonstrated by strong growth in each of our businesses and overall margin improvements. The formation of GoTo, through the combination of Gojek and Tokopedia, puts us in an even better position to serve customers. As we deepen integration of the businesses, we have been able to enhance operating efficiencies, create multiple cross-platform opportunities and invest for the future growth and profitability of GoTo,” said Andre Soelistyo, GoTo Group Chief Executive Officer.

“Our operating companies have performed strongly, and gained more benefits on the back of synergies in our ecosystem. We have focused on initiatives that encourage usage between each of our market-leading platforms. For example, we have made GoPay the majority e-money provider on Tokopedia, introduced status matching of loyalty programs on Gojek and Tokopedia, and consolidated our rewards currency, Gopay Coins, across the ecosystem. As a result, we saw 37% year-on-year growth among pro forma annual transacting users who transacted on both Gojek and Tokopedia in 2021. These users tend to spend more and are more loyal than users of just one platform.

“Throughout 2022 we will build on these initiatives and continue to leverage the competitive advantages that come from our unique ecosystem as we continue to capitalize on the exciting growth opportunity presented by Indonesia and the Southeast Asia region. As markets open up further, it will be especially important to continually improve and integrate our core products to ensure we are meeting the needs of our growing customer base across on-demand, e-commerce and financial technology services,” he added.

Meanwhile, GoTo Group Chief Financial Officer Jacky Lo said he is pleased with the solid growth momentum we achieved in 2021 despite headwinds caused by the Covid surge.

“We finished 2021 with strong year-on-year growth of 40 percent and 44 percent for pro forma GTV and gross revenue respectively. Results for the first quarter of 2022 were even stronger, with quarterly year-on-year growth of 46% and 53% for pro forma GTV and gross revenue, providing a promising indication of our future prospects,” he said.

He said the group expects to reap significant additional benefits as we integrate Gojek, Tokopedia and GoTo Financial further and have been investing accordingly in cross-platform integration since May 2021.

“In the first quarter of 2022, we also focused on optimizing our incentive spend and operating expenses, and have already seen significant results that will act as a strong foundation as we work towards improving our margins. Contribution margin and adjusted EBITDA margin improved by 24 and 14 percentage points, respectively, between the fourth quarter of 2021 and the first quarter of 2022,” he said.

Moving forward, he said the group will continue to take a robust and thorough approach to cost management, supporting its growth and investment objectives and allowing it to establish a clear path to profitability and drive further value for its various stakeholders.

Indonesia tech giant GoTo shares close 13% up on market debut