Indonesian brands bank on BTS, Song Joong Ki, to win on home ground

THE largest merger in Indonesia between Tokopedia and Gojek has received strong backing from several big-name investors such as Alibaba Group, BlackRock, Facebook, Google and Temasek.

But the US$18 billion merger may have also mobilised support from two unlikely sources: the BTS Army and Blinks.

With BTS and Blackpink as brand ambassadors for the Indonesian giant Tokopedia, Southeast Asia's largest economy is looking to use the strong base of Korean-wave fans to rally support back home as part of a "glocalisation" strategy.