Well, China has 100+ Groupon clones and Malaysia is picking up as well on its own scale. Group buying sites are popping out lately in Malaysia. It's a bit of deja-vu like many were attempting to build a local social network site some years back...
It was the first time in history that a Malaysian company made headlines at TechCrunch last December. Friendster, the granddaddy of social networks has been acquired by MOL Global, a Malaysian e-commerce (payment) company...
Generally, Malaysians are skeptical or reluctant to shop online due to security concerns among many. We lack smart consumers, as suggested by Danny Foo. Air Asia did a great job in our e-commerce education. Desperately in need of bargain air tickets? Learn how to shop online and brace yourself by entering the credit card numbers...
Do you have the habit of shopping at foreign online store, especially those from the west? I do, like many others, looking for bargains, stuffs that are special or not easily available here. I do have an extra small habit though...
Well, this post is all about charts and figures. Read on to get a glimpse of e-commerce outlook in selected countries of Asia Pacific. Hopefully, you will get a rough idea on those markets that you are not particularly familiar with...
Blogshop seems to be an unique trend booming only in Singapore and Malaysia. Perhaps, many Singaporeans or Malaysians are accustomed to browse and navigate around blogshop but certainly not me (some might agree with me on this)...
Visit my new blog for updated post on e-commerce statistics
The last time I wrote about e-commerce statistics in Malaysia was 2-3 years back, which you can read it here. It's time to get some updated figures, thanks to PayPal's "Online and Mobile Shopping Insights" study.
Malaysia's online shopping market size was RM 1.8 billion in 2010, estimated to be RM 5 billion in 2014. It's safe to predict that our e-commerce market size is around RM 2-3 billion for this year.
Here, I am compiling a list of important milestones for e-commerce industry in Malaysia.
If you refer to the milestones below, things start to heat up in recent years. Truth to be told, we rely significantly on foreign players to invest into our market. Perhaps local businesses or investors will rather invest into something else rather than e-commerce (which requires long term ROI), haha!
I think there are 3 waves in terms of consumers uptake or market competitiveness:
- Post 2001: Now everyone can fly!
- Post 2011: Coupon madness and group buying war.
- Post 2012: Marketplace (platform) war?
Do leave a comment, and let me know if anything important missing from the following...
Local e-commerce industry seems to be heating up lately. After the just concluded e-commerce fair, we have another event coming up in October...
Bring on the Asia E-Commerce Conference!
Date: 4-5th October 2011
Venue: The Gardens Hotel & Residences Kuala Lumpur
The first ever e-commerce fair in Malaysia had just been concluded last Sunday. Here are some photos and short updates especially for those who didn't manage to attend.
Before we start, here are some facts & figures of Lelong.my.
- Incorporated since: 1998 by 2 founders
- Total employees now: 30+
- No of registered members: 800,000
- No of registered sellers: 10,000 (around 2,000 sign up for online stores)
- Monthly visitors: 3 million
- Monthly transaction: RM 8 - 10 million
Q: How did Lelong get started?
A: I joined Cyber Village as a Web Business Manager under Tony Pua in 1997, selling shopping cart solution and you know, it's not easy to do so in 1997!
Then, I started buypc.com.my (you can call it a predecessor of Lelong), a platform for people to easily browse price list for computer hardware, and trade second hand goods. Techie people are used to newsgroup during that time, so I invited a lot of people from there to use buypc.com.my.
Here's a press release from MyDEAL, key figures highlighted in yellow.
MyDEAL.com.my retains its number 1 spot as one of the most visited websites
After only one year of its inception, MyDEAL Sdn Bhd is proud to announce that it still reigns as the number one online group buying company in Malaysia. According to an internet research website, Alexa.com, MyDEAL has joined in the top 60 websites with most traffic in Malaysia, and emerged as the most visited website compared to other online group buying companies in the country.
Its co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, Jan Croeni started this e-commerce company with 5 staff in early 2010, and now it’s almost 100 strong. MyDEAL has also recorded another milestone by generating almost RM 2mil in revenue/ month, a formidable feat for any medium-sized Malaysian e-commerce company.
I have participated in group buying or deal sites as both a consumer and a merchant. Here's my experience and observations from both perspective.
Consumer
Have you been subscribing to a bunch of deal sites? Probably you have unsubscribed from some of those, as it started to look like familiar, boring marketing / advertising messages bombarded during the pre-group buying era.
Bought some of the deals but never / forgotten to redeem it, sounds familiar? You then slowly realize that those were impulse buying, unnecessary spending - buying things that you don't really need it.
