Carmudi online platform expands Phl operations

MANILA, Philippines - Carmudi, an online marketplace for vehicles, is pouring in funds to improve its services in the Philippines as it seeks to grow its business here.

Carmudi co-founder and global managing director Stefan Haubold said in an email part of the $10 million funding recently secured by the online startup intended for operations in the Asia would be used in the Philippines.

“The allocation of the funding is not set. But the Philippines is highly likely to receive a fair chunk of the amount as we want to invest heavily into the Philippines owing to its massive market potential: 100 million people, a vastly growing car market and the most prominently growing trend of people visiting the online sphere with their phone and tablets. This is an opportunity we must act upon!” he said.

Carmudi, which started its operations in the Philippines in January of this year, serves as an online platform for cars, motorcycles and other vehicle listings.

The startup has a quality assurance team that ensures the information provided for the listings are valid within 24 hours so buyers would feel safe in making transactions through the portal.

While the service is free for private sellers that upload photos of their vehicles for sale, commercial dealers are charged a small fee for a service provided by Carmudi’s team which covers noting the details of the vehicles for sale, taking photos of the units and visiting the dealer on a weekly basis or at the requested time frame.

To grow its business here, Haubold said Carmudi is developing a mobile application, expanding the coverage of listings to other cities such as Cebu, Batangas and Davao, as well as providing reviews, tips, news and tutorials on the site to make it the one-stop-shop for anything related to vehicles online.

Carmudi’s portal in the Philippines gets more than 200,000 visits per month.

“Looking back closely at last month’s rapid growth and at other countries in Asia where we are already the number one in the market, we predict further rapid growth,” Haubold said.

He noted that the growth is not only due to the increasing budget spent towards marketing, but also because of the convenience and efficiency the consumers get from using the portal.

Launched in 2013, Carmudi is part of the Rocket Internet portfolio which is also behind other online sites such as Lazada, Zalora and Groupon.