Gojek and Tokopedia merged, IPO'd, and cut their way to profit as GoTo

By 2020 Gojek (ride-hailing, payments) and Tokopedia (marketplace e-commerce) were Indonesia's two biggest startups, but each was losing a cash war on two fronts: Grab in mobility, Shopee in commerce. Combined they moved 1.8 billion transactions with over $22 billion in GTV and 100 million monthly users — yet neither was profitable, and a Gojek-Grab merger had already collapsed in early 2021.

On 17 May 2021 the two announced a merger into GoTo Group, with Andre Soelistyo as group CEO and a new GoTo Financial division; the plan was an IPO at a $35–40 billion valuation. GoTo listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange on 11 April 2022 at Rp338 — the top of its Rp316–346 band — raising $1.1 billion. It was Indonesia's third-largest IPO ever (after Bukalapak and Mitratel) and among 2022's biggest IPOs in Asia; shares closed the first day up 13% at Rp382, a market cap of about $31.5 billion.

Then came the reset. In November 2022 GoTo cut 1,300 jobs (~12% of headcount), exited Thailand, Vietnam and GoPlay, and burned less: on-demand division EBITDA turned positive in Q3 2023 on a pre-allocation basis, and the group posted its first full-year positive adjusted EBITDA in FY2024 (Q4-24: +IDR 399 billion). In Q3 2025 GoTo reported its first adjusted pre-tax profit (IDR 62 billion) with adjusted EBITDA up 239% to IDR 516 billion.

A May 2021 merger and $1.1B IPO (2022) gave scale to cut — 1,300 layoffs, market exits — and the first full-year group adjusted EBITDA turned positive in FY2024.

Merging stopped Gojek and Tokopedia subsidizing each other's competition, and listing imposed quarterly discipline.

Cost cuts: incentives down ~36%, cloud ~25%, non-core markets exited; losses stopped post-listing.

A merger between cash-burning rivals buys a truce, not economics; the profit comes from the brutal disassembly after — incentives, cloud spend, geography — done on a public quarterly clock.

FY2024 was GoTo's first full year of positive group adjusted EBITDA (Q4-24: +IDR 399B vs +IDR 89B a year earlier); Q3-2025 brought the first adjusted pre-tax profit (IDR 62B) on adjusted EBITDA of IDR 516B (+239% YoY). In December 2023, TikTok parent ByteDance agreed to take about 75% of Tokopedia for roughly $1.5 billion (closing in 2024), with GoTo keeping 25%. GoTo now points to AI-driven automation as a growth lever for customer-service economics.