Career & background
Originally from Pematang Siantar in North Sumatra, Tanuwijaya moved to Jakarta to study and worked overnight in an internet café while at university. BINUS identifies him as an informatics graduate and alumnus. In his 2015 interview with AmCham Indonesia, he described developing the marketplace idea with Leontinus Alpha Edison and the difficulty of securing early backing. The account shows how exposure to the internet became the starting point for an entrepreneurial career.
Areas of contribution
Tokopedia brought buyers and merchants into a shared digital marketplace. EY lists Tanuwijaya as its Indonesia Entrepreneur Of The Year winner for 2019. As the business developed within GoTo, his responsibilities changed: GoTo announced his move away from daily Tokopedia executive duties in February 2023, and reported the completion of his commissioner term in May 2024. His profile is presented here through his enduring role as a co-founder.
Leadership focus
In the AmCham interview, Tanuwijaya connected the marketplace opportunity to Indonesia’s geography and producers’ need to promote their goods. Trust between buyers and sellers was central to his explanation. His founder story illustrates the work of turning a broad technological possibility into a service people can use, while building the credibility needed to attract customers, colleagues and investors.
The basis of this profile.
This profile brings together factual career information from publicly available sources. References and publication dates are provided below.
AmCham Indonesia — Newsmaker interview14 Dec 2015 · Read the original publicationBINUS University — William Tanuwijaya alumni profileAccessed 9 Nov 2026 · Read the original publicationEY Indonesia — Entrepreneur Of The Year alumniAccessed 9 Nov 2026 · Read the original publicationGoTo — Leadership structure announcement8 Feb 2023 · Read the original publicationGoTo — 2024 GMS agenda and leadership changes22 May 2024 · Read the original publicationPortrait — Priscilla anais / Wikimedia Commons16 Jul 2018 · Read the original publicationPortrait licence — CC BY-SA 4.0Accessed 9 Nov 2026 · Read the original publicationWritten independently and checked on 9 November 2026. Co-Founder is a historical founding designation. The cited GoTo announcements establish that the executive and commissioner roles described in older biographies changed in 2023–2024. The 2015 interview is used for personal background, rather than present-day operating figures. Portrait: William Tanuwijaya 1, 16 July 2018, by Priscilla anais, CC BY-SA 4.0. Original photograph retained; responsive display cropping.
Professional details reflect the cited publication dates and may change. Third-party materials remain subject to their owners’ rights.
