A tale of wedding pictures : A study case of youth entrepreneurs in the creative economy in Makassar, Indonesia

Since 2009, the government of Indonesia see the creative economy as an opportunity to increase its GDP. However, the creative economy is a new sector and there still many things to explore in this sector. Not only the central government, but several local governments also try to develop their creative economy in the hope it will contribute to their local economic development. Makassar is one of those cities that try to develop this sector. This sector is attracting people to becoming an entrepreneur, because the barrier for entering this sector is relatively low. Many young people is seeing this as an opportunity, and try becoming an entrepreneur. This paper tries to identify which conditions enable youth entrepreneurship development in the photography sub-sector of the creative economy in Makassar, Indonesia. This paper also tries to identify what is the roles of the government to promoting the youth entrepreneur in the creative economy, identify in what ways do market structures contribute to the emerge of an entrepreneur, and what is the growth trajectory of these entrepreneurs. The study is conducted in Makassar where both local government and central government had not to intervene the sub-sector photography. The methodology used in this study is qualitative interview and case study; with government officials, youth entrepreneur in photography, and ex-costumer as the primary respondent. The study also uses government document as a secondary data. The results of the study are first, the government still has a small role in the development and growth of youth entrepreneur. Second, the moment of the advancement of technologies, modern social interaction, and the increase in living standards (economy growth) in Makassar are perfectly matched with the appearance of the creative economy. Also, third, the youth entrepreneur in the creative economy is growth-oriented, who are graduate from the survival entrepreneur because of the support from the entrepreneurial ecosystem.