Kaskus
KASKUS is an Indonesian Internet forum that was the largest Indonesian online community. Registration is required for new users to participate in the community, and every registered member has access to more than twenty regional and subject-related sub-forums. The community initially used vBulletin forum but switched to a new engine they developed called a New KASKUS in mid-2012.
 | |
Type of site | Internet forum, classifieds |
|---|---|
| Available in | Indonesian |
| Headquarters | , |
| Area served | Worldwide |
| Owner | GDP Venture |
| Founder(s) | Andrew Darwis Ronald Stephanus Budi Dharmawan |
| URL | www m |
| Advertising | Some |
| Commercial | Yes |
| Registration | Optional |
| Launched | 6 November 1999 |
History
KASKUS was created on November 6, 1999 by Indonesian students Andrew Darwis, Ronald Stephanus, Ken Dean Lawadinata and Budi Dharmawan. KASKUS was originally intended as an informal forum of Indonesian students abroad. The name "KASKUS" itself is an abbreviation of the word "Kasak-Kusuk".
PC Magazine Indonesia named Kaskus in August 2005[1] as being the best site and largest online community and in 2006, as the choice of readers in 2006. On May 23, 2006, the management was forced to change their .com domain to .us, because of the spread of the virus Brontok which was created with the aim of attacking large sites in Indonesia. By the beginning of April 2007, KASKUS management added two new Dell Servers to improve KASKUS's website performance. In July 2008, KASKUS management decided to operate the server in Indonesia. For this purpose, KASKUS bought eight Dell PowerEdge 2950 servers and operated them via a network of open IXP. This resulted in multiplied access to KASKUS and eventually added eight more servers to handle the requests.
In March 2008, after convincing his cousin Andrew to Expand and create a proper business out of KASKUS, Ken Dean Lawadinata came on board as partner and CEO. PT Darta Media Indonesia was then created as the parent company of KASKUS, by the end of 2008 KASKUS went on a major expansion and changes in its product line and vision to become the No.1 Largest Local site in Indonesia, and received its first 1 Million user base.
In 2011, KASKUS management announced the expansion of its business by establishing a relationship of cooperation with the investment of Global Digital Prima into KASKUS, which is a subsidiary of Djarum. In addition, KASKUS plans to increase the number of servers up to 250. They also plan on recruiting up to 80 new personnel. In August 2012, Kaskus had more than 4,000,000 registered accounts. On May 26, 2012, KASKUS management was forced to change their domain from .us to .co.id because of errors on the Domain Name System (DNS). In 2012, KASKUS management developed their own forum engine officially called KASKUS 2.0, called the New KASKUS by KASKUS's users.[3] When the engine reached a beta stage, selected users used the forum with the engine, while non-selected users still used the vBulletin version. By the end of 2012, complete conversion to KASKUS 2.0 was completed. Some threads and posts could not be transferred to the new engine, so KASKUS management decided to keep them accessible through the vBulletin version of the forum (called Old KASKUS by the users).
By 2014 KASKUS had more than 25 million unique users and was a famous local site in Indonesia. On this year KASKUS also went through some changes with Ken Dean Lawadinata after his 7 years of turnaround of KASKUS from a 1-man forum site to Indonesia's leading online forum, moved up to become the new Chairman of PT Darta Media Indonesia, with Martin Hartono assuming the day-to-day operation as the new CEO. Andrew Darwis also moved from his office of CTO to become the Chief Community Officer for KASKUS.
In 2015, KASKUS story is in production to be adapted to become a major Cinema movie with codename "Ken & Andrew, The movie". Planned to be released in 2016.
Services
KasPay
KasPay provides an online payment system. It was launched on November 6, 2009 on the 10th Anniversary Celebration of KASKUS at Poste, the east building, Kuningan, Jakarta. This service can be used on websites that are affiliated with KasPay. KasPay operates like e-wallet, being used as a tool for buying and selling in online transactions. KasPay's transaction is done through the transfer of money, so it is more secure and safe from credit card frauds. Transaction security is maintained with an e-mail confirmation and the keeping of records.
E-pulsa
E-pulsa provides cellphone credits and charging facilities. Transactions on e-pulsa can only be done through KasPay.
KASKUS Ads
KASKUS Ads Service (abbreviated KAD) allows KASKUS and KasPay users to place advertisements on the KASKUS community forum for a cost.
KASKUS Radio
KASKUS Radio (commonly abbreviated as KR) is an Internet radio powered by KASKUS Network. It has more than 20 broadcasters. The radio broadcasts a variety of songs in languages such as English, Mandarin, Japanese, and Korean.
KASKUS Mobile
KASKUS Mobile allows visitors to use the mobile version of KASKUS. Users can reply to and create a new topic through their mobile phone with this service. KASKUS Mobile is accessible via mobile phones. It is also possible to access the service through PC browsers by visiting KASKUS mobile site.
Sub-forums
"Loe-Ke-Loe" (Indonesian slang for "From you, to you") is a sub-forum where users can find and discuss specific topics, such as community, hobbies, lifestyle, and personal interests.
Cas-Cis-Cus is a sub-forum where users can freely talk about various topics, such as politics, general news, or personal experiences.
Jual Beli sub-forum allows users to purchase and sell goods and services. Goods and services sold on this sub-forum range from T-shirts to land rights.
KASKUS Corner is a sub-forum where users can get information about events and activities such as social services, gatherings, or workshops organized by KASKUS or users.
KASKUS also features a large number of regional forums for locations within Indonesia and worldwide.
References
- PC Magazine Indonesia – "Best Website 2005". Archived from the original on February 12, 2006. Retrieved 2005-10-20.CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
Andrew Darwis, Pendiri Situs Forum Online Terbesar di Indonesia, KASKUS.co.id
