If you’re interested in observing how Asian startups expand into neighbor markets, or trying to understand internet trends among Taiwanese consumers – keep an eye on Carousell.
The Singapore-based startup offers a peer-to-peer mobile marketplace that facilitates the buying-and-selling of goods. Uploading a product listing can be done in seconds, and buyers who eye a specific product can coordinate purchases via chat. It’s not a revolutionary concept; rather, it’s an extremely simple one, and the app has seen strong traction among Singaporean college students.
Following the disclosure of a US$6 million round led by Sequioa Capital, the startup “officially” launched in Taiwan today, though its localized app has been live since October. Since then, its team of two local employees has been recruiting sellers to get on the app. Joyce Chen, Carousell’s community manager in Taiwan, tells Tech in Asia that involves hustling at designer markets and cold-emailing venders on Yahoo Auctions and Ruten – Taiwan’s incumbent, web-based peer-to-peer marketplaces.
“We expect Taiwan will become our number one market,” said co-founder Quek Siu Rui at a small press event in Taipei. “The population is much bigger than Singapore, about five times bigger. Also, everyone is using their smartphones. The ecommerce ecosystem is already very mature.”
It’s true that Taiwan’s ecommerce industry is robust and growing. Data obtained by The American Chamber of Commerce in Taipei from Taiwan’s Institute for Information Industry values the island’s ecommerce revenues at US$25 billion in 2013. The same piece reports that revenues from consumer-to-consumer ecommerce grew 12 percent year-on-year. Meanwhile, as ecommerce players large and small pour resources into mobile, the industry looks set to undergo significant changes. Taiwanese people are already some of the world’s biggest spenders on mobile – App Annie ranked the island as the fifth strongest driver of Google Play revenues in 2013. The jump from buying Candy Crush coins on the subway to buying shoes on the subway ought to not be so great.
Statistics that pertain specifically to Taiwan’s consumer-to-consumer ecommerce market are more difficult to come by. Also, given that Yahoo Auctions and PCHome’s Ruten let ordinary Janes and Joes sell stuff along side online hustler-types, these services aren’t 100 percent comparable to Carousell. But anecdotally speaking, peer-to-peer ecommerce is a big part of Taiwan’s internet culture. In addition to Yahoo Auctions and Ruten, another hot spot for buying and selling goods is PPT, a BBS service founded in the nineties by a group of NTU students that’s alive and kicking to this day. Group buying schemes on Facebook are also quite common, as is the case in other parts of Asia.
Neither Ruten nor Yahoo have released dedicated apps for peer-to-peer commerce, and PTT’s mobile experience remains just as clunky as its desktop experience. This might lead one to think that a nimble startup like Carousell can outwit the grandaddy incumbents. It has a great design and is easy to use. Its uber-hip marketing team will head to college campuses and take to social media, in hopes of breaking up the networks that make PTT, Ruten, and Yahoo’s marketplaces so valuable. But these networks are stiff, and might not disintegrate so quickly.
Meanwhile, Line, the Japanese messaging app that’s huge in Taiwan, has also expressed interest in rolling out a peer-to-peer marketplace in Taiwan. Originally, Line Taiwan said it would cut the ribbon on an ecommerce app in November. That time has now passed. But what the Naver subsidiary lacks in speed, it can make up for in marketing spend. In the past, the company has plastered the island with advertisements promoting its apps. In addition, the built-in network from its flagship app could help drive adoption of its ecommerce services. Carousell’s US$6 million in venture capital ought to help it staff up and improve its technology. But ads on the subway probably aren’t in the equation.
With sizable venture capital behind it, Singapore’s darling startup faces a big opportunity in Taiwan, but it will be pit against giants both young and old. But if it wins Taiwan the way it won in its home turf, it could join the high ranks of its competitors.
This post Carousell’s entry into Taiwan presents big opportunities and big challenges appeared first on Tech in Asia.
Carousell’s entry into Taiwan presents big opportunities and big challenges
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