How Much More Can Indonesia do Before Disposable E-Cigarettes Become Popular? ?

How Much More Can Indonesia do Before Disposable E-Cigarettes Become Popular? ?

The characteristics of the Indonesian market are very special and open. Disposable device with 500-800 puffs is mainly used for night market.

Recently, Writer contacted a person in Indonesia who said that "Disposable device has special characteristics and is unlikely to develop in Indonesia". "The Indonesian market has its own attributes, consumption power is not high, Disposable product is very expensive, consumers generally do not choose; At the same time, locals are mainly consumed by oil injection, because local e-liquids are cheap ".

According to the person's disclosure , only a few disposable vape in the sale. In the words of this person, disposable device has the particularity of the market region, and it is unlikely to develop in Indonesia for the time being, so generally Indonesia does not do disposable device. If you think you can educate yourself, you should be educated. But in fact, the disposable is still not big in Indonesia, and only the first-tier city market can do, but it can not get up a lot.

At present, in the Indonesian market, there are no more than 10 brands which sell disposable vape in the market, such as YOUME, Relx, Wei Mei Technology, COC, SMOK, VOOPOO, Snowplus, SP2 and so on.
Relx's refilled pod in Indonesia can do well, more channels, more stores. It is reported that Relx has opened more than 700 stores in Indonesia.

01 Bigsmok occupies 50% of the market!

Indonesia market distribution, market share, bigsmok50%; Refilled cartridges (mainly relx) 30%; disposable: 20%.

From this point of view, Indonesia's e-cigarette market is mainly dominated by big smoke and open pod.

Compared with disposable vape, disposable vape cost performance is not high, on the one hand, disposable price is high, but the local per capital is low, so there is not much disposable consumer group.

02 Indonesia is dominated by 4 regional markets.

The e-cigarette market in Indonesia is dominated by 4 regions, including Jakarta, Bandung, Surabaya, and Yogyakarta. Among them, Jakarta, Bandung and Surabaya markets are more active.

In some areas, such as the tourist city of Bali, many European and American tourists spend mainly on disposable consumption, and they prefer brands such as HQD and ELFbar.

Local disposable brands mainly focus on HQD, ELFBAR, YOUME, Relx, Wei Mei (small range), Coze (local brand in Surabaya, Indonesia), ZOVOO and snowplus.

However, there are relatively few local refilled pod brands, mainly Relx, SP2 and laan are relatively rare.

03 Large puffs disposable device, can't be sold ?

In the Indonesian market, big puffs disposable are generally not sold, and there are few black markets.
According to the local disclosure, because of market regulations, large capacity can not be sold, 6ml2000 basic cap. It is generally popular 3ml.

04 E-cigarette oil is mainly concentrated in the local market.

Indonesia's e-liquids are mainly indigenous. The main producing area of e-cigarette oil in Indonesia is Malang Regency. Data also show that Indonesia e-liquid is very developed. Data from Indonesia's Ministry of Industry show that in 2020, Indonesia had more than 300 e-liquids factories and nearly 20,000 kinds of e-liquids.

Careful analysis, why Indonesia uses local e-cigarette mainly, this is mainly the e-cigarette policy has tilted.

In Indonesia, open pod products occupy most of the market, both large and small cigarettes are mainly open pod system. The local government only levies a tax of 445 rupiah /ml on local e-liquids, while it levies a tax of 6,030 rupiah /ml on closed pre-infused products, indicating that the policy is clearly biased towards local e-liquids merchants.

On the whole, the Indonesian market is still in the big smoke, open oil injection stage, disposable market penetration is average.

In terms of dealers, Indonesia JVS, OOZE, REFRE5H, etc., are the head dealers. Distribution stores are more atmospheric, distributed in the street, but also distributed in shopping malls.

Jakarta, South Tangerang area, electronic cigarette shops are more concentrated. In addition to shops, there are also coffee shops, mobile phone shops, bars, shopping malls and other forms. Consumer products are also mainly oil injection and ammunition change.

At present, Indonesia is one of the regions with the best policies. Since the market was opened legally in 2018, it has attracted the attention of Chinese manufacturers' brands, and a large number of small and medium-sized enterprises have entered Indonesia.

In terms of policy, Indonesian imports must apply for import approval and sales certification. Indonesian National Standard Certification (SNI) must be obtained from Indonesian Ministry of Health, Indonesian Food and Drug Administration and Indonesian Ministry of Industry; E-cigarettes can only be imported by companies that already have an importer Identification number (API) and have obtained an e-cigarette import approval issued by the Minister of Trade. NPBBK with import and export qualifications is required.


There are high tariffs. Indonesia has a 57 percent tariff on e-cigarette products, which must be labeled. Nicotine-containing aerosols are considered products in the "processed tobacco" category; Nicotine-free atomizing solution and a series of electronic atomizing devices and hosts are considered consumer goods. Like POD oil injection type products (only customs fee, according to 3C parts imported).

At the same time, many Chinese factories are moving to Batam because Indonesia encourages tobacco investment, has favorable policies and low tariffs. Garindra Kartasasmita, secretary general of the Indonesian Electronic Cigarette Association, has said that if the target market is still the United States, Britain, the Middle East, etc., it can build a factory in Batam, Indonesia. Batam is designated as a free trade zone, where Chinese companies can ship all their raw materials without paying any tariffs, and then the products can be easily exported. And so far, not only Batam island, Indonesia Surabaya, Jakarta, Tangerang have already had factories.

The door of Indonesia's e-cigarette industry has always been open to Chinese brands. Indonesia, with a population of 300 million, has more than 60 million smokers and more than 2 million e-cigarette users, mostly middle-aged and young people. The market size has exceeded 200 million US dollars and will continue to grow in the future. Some of Indonesia's vaping activities also show that the country is pushing the industry to new heights, with an amazing consumer culture and relatively loose regulation. 40% of the country's population is young, which is also destined to have a high acceptance of e-cigarettes.

(Source: “一色观察” )

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