Carsome commits US$7.1mil to Indonesian operations

• Aims to pull more dealers to the platform and add another 10 inspection points
• Since beginning operations in 2016, growth has stood at 20% a month

MALAYSIAN online used-car platform Carsome expanded into the Indonesian market recently.

Carsome aims to revolutionise the used car industry by providing a seamless and transparent online used-car selling process.

Operating in Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, and Indonesia, Carsome has registered more than 200,000 bids for cars, with 70% of the transactions being done inter-city.

Carsome co-founder and chief executive officer Eric Cheng says that his company has committed a total of 100 billion rupiah (US$7.1 million) for its expansion to Indonesia.

“The funds will be used for working capital, marketing, and operating expenses. We will also pull more dealers to our platform and add another 10 inspection points.”

Carsome began operations in Indonesia in 2016. According to Carsome Indonesia country manager Andreas Djingga growth has stood at 20% per month, with more than 700 dealers, 70 inspection points, and 700 cars sold worth 60 billion rupiah (US$4.2 million). It also has more than 30 local staff.

“With the Series B funding we received earlier this year, the company is going to grow in Indonesia, by investing more in building brand awareness and expanding workforce to boost population coverage and increase inspections sites.”

He explains that Indonesia sees more than two million used car transactions annually and is one of the largest used car markets in Southeast Asia (SEA).

Cheng says that Indonesia’s market is bigger than other countries such as Malaysia, but the market behaviour is similar.

“However, in Indonesia, we face logistics challenges because it’s an archipelago, but it gives us more chances in terms of market size.”

He also plans to boost talent and increase brand awareness among users and dealers in Indonesia by providing comprehensive information about the cars.

“Specifically, in Indonesia, traditional dealerships make up the majority of the market in the used-car industry. The industry circumstances create huge inefficiencies in the used-car buying and selling experience.”

Offering a customer-to-business (C2B) model, Andreas says, “We are able to offer transparency in our prices because there is no fictitious price and we also provide convenience to users seeking to sell their cars.”

Cheng adds, “We see a strong market fit for our business model here as there are not many online alternatives similar to our set up, which provides an end-to-end disposal process to customers.”

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