Remember when we were little and our greatest ambition was to be in Santa Claus’ list of good kids?
This year e27 is going to play Santa Claus by looking back at all the news we have published this year, and find out which companies and institutions that have been in their best behaviour —and which ones deserve to have their Christmas presents postponed until next year.
We acknowledge achievements, victories, and good deeds on our Good List, while controversies, scandal, and mischief find their home in their Bad List. The parties included in this list range from startups, major corporations, and even a certain minister.
Take a sit and get a cup of hot chocolate ready.
The Good Kid List
SaleStock
Despite having had to lay-off “hundreds” of its employees in September, SaleStock managed to turn things around by securing top positions in Jobplanet’s list of best startups to work for, a list that was once dominated by Tokopedia. The list was made based on factors such as salary, career path, and work-life balance; considering the fact that SaleStock had just been launched to the public in 2015, the startup’s rise to fame seemed to continue to impress jobseekers.
Indonesian high school kids in NASA’s Atlas 5 project
A group of high school students from the remote village of Laguboti, North Sumatra, followed by a joint group of students from various cities in Indonesia, collaborated with NASA on a mission to send rice and yeast to the International Space Station in early 2016. The experiment aims to research how crops such as rice and yeast grow in zero gravity condition, and the students presented their research in the Annual Conference of the American Society for Gravitational and Space Research. Sigh. Kids these days.
Also Read: 9 applications that will greatly benefit from machine learning in 2017
Go-Jek
Is there anything that Go-Jek did not achieve in 2016? From growing its services, acquiring India-based startups, fostering partnerships with top brands, to finally securing unicorn status with its latest US$550 million funding, the year 2016 belongs to Go-Jek. Even more impressive considering how the company had only begun to rise into fame in mid-2015 when it introduced its Idul Fitri promo.
Taxi companies in Indonesia
An unlikely figure in a list that is supposedly dedicated for startup communities. Yes, but we believe that conventional taxi companies such as Blue Bird and Express Group deserve credit for finally embracing innovation and making peace with its archnemesis, the ride-hailing startups. The process has not been easy, but this has given us hope that world peace is indeed possible.
Qlue
After Jakarta, Qlue is set to keep government officials accountable in more Indonesian cities as it announced its national expansion in May. The startup also raised a “more than” US$1 million Series A funding round in the same month. Not everybody is happy with this though, as the startup has been facing rejection in several neighbourhood in Jakarta, but…