On The Carousell Ride
In just seven short years, Carousell of Singapore has evolved to become a leading light in Asia’s digital classifieds, the buy and sell arena of new and second-hand consumer goods. The brainchild of three young Singaporeans who back then, had just left university, Carousell now enjoys bragging rights that it’s active in 19 cities spread over six major markets -- Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the Philippines; and has amassed 200 million listings with 71 million items sold. The average engagement of their app active users is an impressive 17 minutes, with 182.8 million US dollars raised.
Carousell is such a runaway success story in the region that Naspers, who own OLX, took a 10 percent stake in Carousell, thereby merging their Philippine operations. This will create the best classifieds experience in the country. This officially happens on July 15, 2019; and as was explained during the special media event, the migration of all OLX accounts and data to Carousell is a simple "three clicks" process.
From the onset, Carousell has been about their expertise in technology and AI bringing better value, trust, and convenience to their users. OLX Philippines General Manager Raffy Montemayor looks forward to this July 15 transition (and his shifting to Carousell Philippines GM), and is confident about how this merger would only strengthen engagement on the app, to the benefit of all users, whether buyers or sellers.
(Left to right) Carousell senior communications manager Jarieul Wong, Carousell Philippines general manager Raffy Montemayor, Property24 head Tina Bautista, Carousell Philippines marketing manager Marita Galvez, and senior marketing manager Ralph Garcia
Property 24, a premium international online platform dedicated to property buyers and sellers in the Philippines, is part of this merger, and this will only improve the site. If Property 24 has its network of real estate brokers and developers with their high quality leads, and this was "married" to OLX’s string brand audience for local property seekers, you can now add Carousell’s highly engaged and dynamic female audience to the mix.
What this merger really means for the average person is enhanced opportunity. Beyond the fact that celebrities such as Georgina Wilson and Maine Mendoza regularly make Carousell their platform for selling pre-loved items, one of the truly impressive Carousell success stories was this 18-year-old student, who for the last two years, has been selling second-hand smartphones and gadgets, and netting some P80k a month.
Another budding fashion entrepreneur uses Carousell for repurposing discarded fashion apparel and converting them to something new and sellable. She’s been doing this for some years now; and happy for the Carousell connection.
What the two stories had in common was how Carousell effectively took the place of the selling floor, the space you would have had to rent in a brick and mortar situation; and was more than effective in spelling success for their ventures.
It’s really up to your imagination to seek out that business opportunity, and harness Carousell as your pipeline to your market. The new improved Carousell app uses images stronger than text descriptions; it suggests prices, showing you similar items to what you’re planning to sell that have been sold successfully, and even rates the sellers by how potential buyers have engaged with them. And that’s just the tip of the technological and AI iceberg -- Carousell has found ways to make engaging with them more fruitful and providential.
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