The name was chosen to be said without thinking. Blibli is short for beli-beli, Indonesian for buy, buy. When it began in 2011 as a subsidiary of the Djarum group, the people behind it were asking Indonesians to do something that did not yet feel normal, which was to put a washing machine or a phone in an online basket and trust that it would arrive.
The founders listed for the company include Kusumo Martanto, Martin Hartono, Lisa Widodo, Hendry and Lay Ridwan Gautama. Public records say little about their early lives, but they say plenty about what kind of company Blibli was meant to be. Djarum is a family conglomerate known for cigarettes and banking, and its investment arm, GDP Ventures, led by Martin Hartono, chose to treat e-commerce as a long game rather than a quick flip.
Analysts have questioned whether growth is coming at the expense of margins, and the company says profitability and margin improvement are priorities.
That patience is the real story. Blibli spent its first decade in a market where Tokopedia, Shopee and Lazada burned cash on discounts. A backer that could outlast the burn bought it time. In 2017 Blibli bought tiket.com. In 2021 it took a 70.56 percent stake in PT Supra Boga Lestari, the operator behind Ranch Market and Farmers Market, which gave an online retailer a supermarket network and a click-and-collect option.
Then came the public test. In late 2022, Blibli listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange under the ticker BELI, raising Rp7.99 trillion, about US$509 million, the second-largest IPO of that year after GoTo. It became Indonesia's third unicorn on the way. In 2023 it added Dekoruma, a furniture and home decor platform.
The cost of staying power still shows. In 2025, Blibli reported net revenue of roughly Rp22.36 trillion, up about 34 percent, while its operating loss narrowed to about Rp2.01 trillion from Rp2.36 trillion the year before. Analysts have questioned whether growth is coming at the expense of margins, and the company says profitability and margin improvement are priorities. Djarum's group still holds about 83.68 percent, so the public owns just a sliver of the story.
There is a useful lesson here for founders who raise venture money in the usual way. Blibli's survival did not depend on a perfect product in year one. It depended on a patient owner, and on managers who used the time to buy the things e-commerce rivals had to build, such as stores, travel and home categories. Patience is a strategy only if the business uses it to get stronger.