Kuala Lumpur (9 December 2014) – Carousell has today officially launched in Malaysia. Developed by a start-up company of the same name, Carousell aims to make online person-to-person buying and selling accessible and simple for the emerging smartphone generation worldwide.
Carousell is a mobile-first C2C marketplace and a mobile app that aims to make online person-to-person buying and selling accessible and simple for the emerging smartphone generation worldwide. With Carousell, sellers can snap a photo and list an item for sale in 30 seconds or less; buyers can purchase items just by chatting with sellers via an in-built private chat messenger.
Mobile commerce in Malaysia has grown rapidly over the last couple of years, from 5.5 per cent of the total e-commerce market size in 2010, to close to 50 per cent (RM 1.82 billion) in 2013. With the mobile share of online commerce in Malaysia projected to reach 59.6 per cent (RM 3.43 billion) in 20151, the country represents immense potential for Carousell.
“Shopping online through smartphones is expected to become a game changer and we are psyched to have built something simple, intuitive and engaging. We started Carousell to make online buying and selling accessible to everyone. If you know how to snap a photo or send a text message using a smartphone, you essentially know how to buy and sell on Carousell,” said Lucas Ngoo, one of the three co-founders of Carousell, and who is also a Malaysian. “Malaysians love to shop online and we are thrilled to officially launch here. We’re looking forward to welcoming more Carousell users from Malaysia.”
Launched in 2012, Carousell has organically maintained its rank as the No. 1 Lifestyle app on the App Store for 11 months straight, and the No.1 Shopping app since June 2014 in Singapore. The Carousell community has created over 8 million listings of new and preloved items for sale in categories ranging from fashion and beauty to furniture and baby products. To date, over 2 million items have been sold on Carousell, with an average of 8 transactions happening every minute. The average Carousell user spends approximately 21 minutes per day browsing the marketplace app, an engagement level similar to that of the average Instagram user.
Carousell began its marketing efforts in Malaysia in January 2014. Since then, it has received an encouraging response to the app, with young Malaysians forming a majority of the early adopter community. Users in Malaysia have been actively listings items for sale since January 2014 at a rate that sees listing numbers doubling every two to three months. The team, which highly values community feedback, has also spent considerable time on-the-ground interacting with Malaysian Carousell users through a variety of events held throughout the year.
“The biggest takeaway from speaking with our Malaysian users so far has been that Carousell is a product that they, and many others like them, have been waiting for”, says Quek Siu Rui, one of the co-founders of Carousell. “Our users really enjoy the convenience and ease-of-use of the app, and the fact that it allows them to shop and sell on-the-go extremely quickly. This is something that existing e-commerce platforms in Malaysia have yet to offer.”
In November this year, Carousell announced that it has received more than USD6.8 million in investments to date by world class investors like Rakuten Ventures and Sequoia Capital who have backed companies like Google, Apple and WhatsApp.
Carousell is available for free download on Google Play and Apple App store at here.
