Google Asia Pacific Blog | 5 Things to Know about Indonesia’s HiJup.com

This post is part of our regular series of discussions with people across Asia-Pacific who've caught our eye, using the Internet to create, connect and grow. This week we spoke to Diajeng Lestari, CEO of HiJup.com, who helped up put together this handy list of highlights about her fast growing online fashion business.  1. HiJup.com was born to help "hijabers" rethink corporate fashion When Diajeng Lestari, known to her friends as Ajeng, was working nine-to-five as a market researcher she wanted to look professional, yet fashionable — a challenging look to pull off for "hijabers", a term that Ajeng uses to refer to Muslim women like herself. With this as her inspiration, Ajeng created HiJup.com in 2011 as a curated store with collections from local designers and brands, designed to help "hijabers" dress and feel fashionable, confident and happy. 2. The key to a good HiJup.com "How-to" is a silent video Presentation is key, and in the case of HiJup.com, it is also video. Ajeng turned to YouTube as her choice of a low budget but high impact marketing platform. The first thing she did was launch HiJup.com with a simple series of "how-to" videos on YouTube teaching women how to get creative with their hijab fashion. The series was silent, with the intentional absence of language in the videos making the content ready for an international audience. By paying close attention to her viewers' comments, Ajeng carefully developed the channel's video content over the past four years, working with other content creators like bloggers, vloggers and make-up artists to add more tutorials and fashion-related content. Today, the YouTube channel has nearly 130,000 subscribers, and with over 16 million combined views is attracting brands like Unilever and telco provider, XL, who are interested in collaborating on video production. 3. From one video to the world: Global audiences are tuning in to HiJup.com It's not just Indonesians watching HiJup.com's YouTube videos — more than 30% of her viewers are from outside Indonesia, with thousands watching in Malaysia, Dubai and Morocco. In fact, the Hijup.com content on her YouTube channel has generated 20% of Hijup.com traffic. 4. From 2 to 48 employees in three years From a two-woman venture (including Ajeng) in 2011, Hijup.com has grown to a team of 48 employees. 5. HiJup.com is now an online mall for Indonesian designers More than 120 individual Indonesian designers and brands now use Hijup.com. The website and YouTube channel have helped connect millions of women in Indonesia and the region looking for fashionable wardrobe solutions with local brands and designers from across Indonesia through one convenient shop. Posted by Diajeng Lestari, CEO of HiJup.com and a member of the Gapura community helping Indonesian businesses go online