Students using a vending machine on a university campus west of Jakarta are doing more than just buying fizzy pop. By generating a matrix barcode on their smartphones to complete the purchase, they are also sharing their gender, age and shopping habits with one of Indonesia’s largest payments applications, Ovo.
The vending machine is just one of Ovo’s pilot projects as it looks to deepen its already expansive trove of data, gleaned from consumers using its app to pay for shopping, online transport, food delivery and bills.
The startup analyses and credit scores data for financial institutions and consumer goods companies and these use the insights...