Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on August 21, 2017

KUALA LUMPUR: Mobile classifieds marketplace leader, Carousell, intends to deepen its penetration into the Malaysian market by leveraging on the huge growth potential of the country’s digital economy.

The digital economy is targeted to contribute about 20% to the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) by 2020.

Launched in 2012, Carousell is present in six other countries besides Malaysia, namely Indonesia, Singapore, Taiwan, the Philippines, Hong Kong and Australia. It has been in Malaysia since December 2014.

Carousell currently has 80 million product listings globally, and some 28 million of those have had successful transactions. It currently has the highest number of product listings in Malaysia, at over nine million as of June this year.

Carousell co-founder and head of engineering, Lucas Ngoo, said Carousell’s aim in moving forward would be to grow its global and Malaysian customer base, adding that the latter currently has a month-on-month user growth rate of about 30%.

“Right now, we are really focused on growing our user base and bringing the best experience to our users,” Ngoo told The Edge Financial Daily in a recent interview.

“The countries in which Carousell is the fastest growing currently are Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia. We are deepening our presence in all seven countries [we are in], and we plan to expand to more countries,” he said, adding that the necessary announcements will be made when the expansion takes place.

The majority of local listings on Carousell come from the bigger cities in Selangor, Klang Valley, Penang and Johor Baru, according to Ngoo.

“The penetration of e-commerce activity in the larger part of Malaysia as well as the whole Southeast Asian region still has potential to grow,” he added.

Media reports have stated that Malaysia’s digital economy contribution to the GDP, which currently stands at 17%, is likely to hit 20% earlier than 2020, which is the target year under the National eCommerce Strategic Roadmap.

However, Ngoo said that while Malaysia’s digital economy was steadily expanding, oversaturation within the e-commerce market would not become an issue so soon.

“I think, as of now, it is still quite early [for there to be any oversaturation of the e-commerce market in Malaysia], because, for example, it is only in the recent few years that users are turning more and more towards buying and selling e-commerce items from e-commerce websites like Carousell and Lazada,” Ngoo said.

In comparison with its operations in Singapore and Hong Kong, he said Carousell had plenty of room to grow here, and the key to expanding its customer base was by raising awareness among the local population of the company.

Carousell’s investors currently include venture capitalists such as Sequoia Capital, Rakuten Ventures, 500 Startups, Golden Gate Ventures, and QuestVC. In August last year, Carousell raised US$35 million in a fundraising round led by Rakuten Ventures.

Carousell has also recently begun to monetise its services through a feature called “Bumps”, which is a paid service in the Carousell marketplace that helps customers make their products more visible by moving them to the top of their respective categories. The paid service has so far been launched in Singapore and Hong Kong.

“In Singapore and Hong Kong [particularly], it has reached a stage where most of the population knows about Carousell,” he said.

“In Malaysia, we are still in the growth stage, so although we are No 1 in terms of listings, we are still looking for more growth before we start monetisation efforts [here],” he said.

Moving forward, Ngoo said he hopes to enhance and ease customers’ experience by further incorporating the use of machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) to increase efficiency.

“Technology such as machine learning and AI is the best way for customers to buy and sell products quickly [and efficiently],” Ngoo said.

“[The technology] uses data collected based on customers’ past purchase behaviour,” he said, adding that it would be able to predict and suggest further products that customers may be interested to buy.

“This technology is currently being used for safety purposes, for example, if someone has participated in fraudulent behaviour, this technology can detect it,” he added.

Ngoo said the planned improvements using AI and machine learning will happen incrementally and will eventually be integrated into every part of its customers’ buying and selling experience.


 

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