Every week we get asked some version of the same question in the comments: “Kirim ke mana?” Where does everyone else’s money go? A couple of weeks ago we put it to you on Instagram and Facebook, and then we looked at our own numbers to answer it properly.
This is what 90 days of transfers from Australia to Indonesia look like, province by province, and a little about why people send. No sales pitch in this one. It’s just a picture of the community we’re part of.
Four in five go to Java
We counted every transfer from Australia to Indonesia over the 90 days to early October, by the province of the recipient. Twenty-three provinces came up. The spread looks like this.
Three things stood out to us.
Jawa Barat, not Jakarta. Most people guess Jakarta first. It’s the capital, and it’s where a lot of us flew out from. But nearly three in ten transfers go to Jawa Barat: Bandung, Bogor, Bekasi, Depok, Sukabumi, Cirebon and the towns between them. Jakarta is a clear second. Put the two together and the Jabodetabek region plus the rest of West Java is close to half of everything we send.
Java is most of the story, but not all of it. Jawa Barat, DKI Jakarta, Jawa Timur, Jawa Tengah, Banten and Yogyakarta add up to about 79%. The other fifth is spread thin and wide: Bali, Sulawesi Selatan, Lampung, Sumatera Utara, Sulawesi Utara, Nusa Tenggara Timur, Maluku, Papua. Some of those provinces see a handful of transfers a month. Every one of them is somebody’s kampung.
Bali is seven percent, and it’s different. Higher than we expected for a province most Australians think of as a holiday. But the Bali transfers don’t look like the others, and the next table shows why.
What the money is for
Every transfer has a stated purpose, so we counted those too, over the same period.
Nearly nine in ten transfers are family support. That’s the regular one: parents, the household at home, a sibling’s school fees, a roof before the rainy season. For most of our customers it’s the first transfer they ever make and the one they never stop making. Everything else is a rounding error next to it. Except in one place.
In Bali, family support is less than one in ten. Nearly a third of Bali transfers are for buying goods, and the rest are savings, property, gifts and personal transfers. Bali is the province where our customers run a business, pay a supplier, build a villa or put rupiah aside for the next trip. Jakarta is the only other province with a visible business mix, mostly invoices and the occasional school fee. Everywhere else in the country, it’s family.
And a small group send to themselves. Savings and personal transfers are a few percent of the total: a balance built up at home so there’s rupiah waiting when they land. More on this one soon.
Why we’re telling you this
Partly because you asked. Partly because, after eighteen years of doing this, it still surprises us how much of the Indonesian community in Australia shows up in a single table. Perth, Sydney, Melbourne, Darwin and the regional towns on one side; 23 provinces on the other; and nearly all of it going to family.
And partly because it helps us do the job better. Knowing that West Java leads tells us which banks and which cities to make sure we’re fastest to. Knowing that a fifth of transfers go outside Java tells us not to forget the smaller banks. Knowing that Bali senders are paying suppliers, not parents, tells us what those customers need from us next.
If your province is in the “14 others” line, tell us which one. We read every comment.
Message us on WhatsApp at +61 425 813 751, Monday to Friday, 9am to 6pm Melbourne time, or get a quote to send yours.
Photo: Drayhanz / Pexels
