Prabowo Highlights New Revenue Split for Indonesia’s Ride-Hailing Drivers

President Prabowo Subianto says Indonesia has moved towards a fairer division of ride-hailing revenue, raising the share of earnings retained by online motorcycle-taxi drivers, known locally as ojol drivers.

In his State of the Nation Address, the President presented the change as a welfare measure for drivers and said some had reported substantially higher incomes after the policy took effect.

A revised division of fare revenue

The central policy claim is straightforward. According to President Prabowo, drivers previously received 80% of their earnings, while app companies received the remaining 20%. Following a government recommendation, he said drivers’ share has risen to 92%.

Reported change: drivers’ revenue share rose from 80% to 92%, according to President Prabowo.

The President was careful about the language used to describe the measure. He referred to it as a recommendation, while acknowledging in his address that it could also be understood as a form of intervention. That distinction matters: the source describes a government-led effort to influence the commercial relationship between platform companies and the drivers who use them, rather than setting out the detailed legal mechanism behind the change.

For investors watching Indonesia’s consumer economy, the announcement is notable less for its arithmetic alone than for what it signals about policy priorities. Platform businesses sit at the intersection of employment, household income and digital services. A shift in how revenue is divided can therefore become a matter of public policy as well as corporate economics.

Driver welfare is the stated objective

President Prabowo said the government’s purpose was to ensure that ojol drivers receive a fairer share of their earnings. He also said the revised arrangement had produced positive effects on drivers’ welfare.

The evidence cited in the address was anecdotal rather than a published dataset. The President said many drivers had reported significant income increases, with some saying their earnings had doubled and others saying they had tripled. These are first-party claims relayed by the President, not independently quantified results in the source material.

That caveat is important. Earnings for drivers can be shaped by many individual factors, including the volume and mix of trips they complete and the commercial terms applicable to them. The report does not provide a nationwide average income figure, a defined comparison period, or a breakdown of how the reported changes were measured.

Still, the political message is clear. The administration is placing emphasis on the earnings retained by workers operating through digital platforms, and it is publicly linking a greater driver share with improved welfare.

The platform-policy balance

The announcement also underlines a wider tension inherent in the platform economy. Drivers look to retain a larger portion of the value generated through each transaction, while ride-hailing companies need a revenue stream to operate and develop their applications. Policymakers, meanwhile, are seeking an arrangement they regard as fairer to drivers.

President Prabowo framed the move specifically as an effort to rebalance that relationship. The source does not detail how individual companies will implement the recommendation, whether terms differ between services, or what the financial effect may be for the companies involved. It would be premature, therefore, to draw conclusions about company profitability or future pricing from the announcement alone.

What can be said is that the government has made the revenue split a visible policy issue. For businesses exposed to Indonesia’s digital-services economy, that raises the importance of monitoring not only demand and adoption, but also the regulatory expectations placed on platform operators.

Why the announcement matters beyond Jakarta

Online motorcycle-taxi services form part of everyday urban mobility and commerce in Indonesia. The President’s remarks bring the sector into focus as an example of how the government is approaching the distribution of income within digitally enabled work.

For international investors, the relevant lesson is not that one speech resolves the commercial outlook for ride-hailing platforms. It is that the policy environment may place substantial weight on the welfare of the workers who deliver platform services. The stated emphasis on a more equitable revenue split could influence how market participants assess regulatory engagement and operational models.

The announcement may also matter to those tracking consumer spending. If drivers do retain a greater share of their earnings, the administration’s expectation is plainly that this supports their welfare. Yet the source provides no aggregate estimate of the policy’s effect on household consumption, employment, app-company revenues or fares. Those questions remain open.

What this means for investors

Investors should treat the President’s statement as a policy signal, while keeping the available evidence in proportion.

• The reported split has changed: President Prabowo said the driver share moved from 80% to 92% following a government recommendation.
• The policy case is social as well as economic: the administration presents the measure as a way to improve fairness and driver welfare.
• Income claims require care: reports that some drivers doubled or tripled their incomes were cited by the President, but the source provides no independently verified average or methodology.
• Commercial implications are not yet specified: the report does not explain the detailed implementation, company-by-company effects, or consequences for pricing.
• Regulation deserves attention: investors in Indonesia’s platform economy should follow how recommendations translate into operating practice and any subsequent rules.

The next development to watch is whether the government provides further detail on the framework it intends for the ojol sector, and how drivers and app companies respond in practice.

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