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Carousell Pte. Ltd., a community marketplace, creates a lifestyle and shopping application for Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Australia, and internationally.
The company’s app and website enable users to purchase and sell with their friends, individuals who share similar hobbies, and groups in which they take an interest.
It sells clothing and accessories for women, men, babies, and children, luxury goods and pet accessories, home and lifestyle products, hobbies and gadgets, and entertainment products.
Carousell aims to make buying and selling easier for people to fill their lives with more meaningful products.
Carousell Business Model is based on display advertisements and charging listing fees for a premium listing on its platform.
What is Carousell?
Carousell is a business-to-business marketplace that enables users to buy and sell goods and services via its website and mobile app.
Carousell makes money from display advertisements on its website and charging listing fees. The business is based on a marketplace approach.
Carousell was founded in 2012 and has evolved to become Southeast Asia’s biggest classifieds platform. The Carousell industry is worth 900 million dollars at the moment.
How Does Carousell Work?
Carousell is an online marketplace where users can buy and sell a wide variety of products. Customers can select from a variety of categories, including:
- Electronics gadgets
- Automobiles & Real Estate
- Fashion Products
- Games & Hobbies Items
- Living & Home Decors
- Services & Jobs
…. and various others. Carousell is as easy to use as it gets.
Consumers can first access Carousell.com (available on Android and iOS devices) or download one of its mobile apps (available on Android and iOS devices).
The platform requires you to connect your Facebook account or supply it with your personal information (including your name, phone number, email address, and password).
Once users submit a photo and description, they can specify a category and a starting price and then list their items for sale.
Customers can make offers directly on the platform if they are interested in purchasing the product or service. You may also add items to your wish list.
Buyers and sellers can negotiate a price and then transact on or off the platform (such as cash when meeting face to face).
Carousell also provides buyer protection in certain circumstances to safeguard its customers and their money.
In addition, customers can also review sellers on the site, which further increases customer confidence.
Carousell is available in several countries, including Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Cambodia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Australia, and New Zealand.
How Does Carousell Make Money?
Carousell earns money from display advertisements from various brands and sellers and charges listing fees to its members who list their products on the website.
Carousell operates on a marketplace approach, connecting merchants and customers. It then acts as a mediator, recommending products and facilitating payment.
In the section below, we’ll take a closer look at each of those revenue streams.
Listing Fees
There is a listing fee to list your item on Carousell in different categories: automobiles, properties, jobs, and services.
A listing fee is typically charged for transactions in these categories (particularly compared to categories like apparel and electronics). The first listing, however, is free.
Sellers can purchase Carousell coins to pay for listings, just like Carousell’s advertising product. For example, in Singapore, the price of listing a car is 200 coins for 90 days.
Carousell limits the number of listings that sellers can post to maintain excellent quality. Therefore, sellers simply have to be more selective about the products they upload when sale limits apply.
The listing fee on Carousell varies according to the country. Some markets, including Hong Kong and Singapore, charge a higher fee than others, such as the Philippines.
Display Advertisements
Carousell’s primary source of revenue comes from advertising packages that vendors on the platform can purchase.
These packages can be purchased with Carousell Coins, a digital currency used to conduct transactions on the platform.
Carousell’s advertising packages are referred to as Bumps, Profile Promotion, and Spotlight.
Bumping particular products on the platform helps to boost their visibility. These things are then sorted as Popular (without keywords) and Recent.
Profile promotions allow vendors to promote their profiles. Merchants who provide services like cleaning or handyman work will especially benefit from this.
A seller’s products are featured across a wide range of thematically relevant search results in the Spotlight promotion.
Price, geographical location, and current competition all play a role in determining the price of any advertisement.
What is the Funding and Valuation of Carousell?
Crunchbase reports that Carousell has raised $177.9 million in venture capital in 11 rounds.
Several notable investors, including 500 Startups, Sequoia Capital India, Naver, Rakuten, and Golden Gate Ventures.
The market cap of Carousell is currently estimated at $900 million. In September 2020, the firm announced its valuation as part of an $80 million fundraising effort.
What is the Revenue of Carousell?
Carousell’s most recent publicly available revenue figure dates back to 2019, when the company earned $15.7 million. However, Carousell lost about $40 million throughout the same time period.
With an influx of new consumers expected in 2020, that figure has very indeed climbed significantly. Additionally, revenue from 701Search, which Carousell acquired in late 2019, was excluded from the statistic mentioned above.
Success Story of Carousell
Carousell was started on May 1, 2012, by four students from NUS: Quek Siu Rui, Siu Rui Quek, Marcus Tan, and Lucas Ngoo.
Carousell was formed due to Marcus Tan and Lucas Ngoo’s tour of Silicon Valley for a year sponsored by NUS.
You can buy and sell on Carousell using your mobile device. Carousell, like most concepts, was met with skepticism and rejection. Carousell’s founders’ professor at NUS was the first to express doubt about the idea.
This did not stop the young students from persuading their professor to elaborate on their concept in greater detail.
Professor BJ spent a substantial amount of time persuading the team and awarded them a $7000 award.
Singapore hosted Startup Weekend in September 2012, a competition in which 80 startups competed and only 20 advanced to the final round.
The Carousell team ultimately won the tournament, and this was the start of a lovely story of four ambitious men who refused to accept no for an answer.
The crew graduated from NUS in 2013 and now had enough time to devote to Carousell. Carousell published its initial iOS application in August 2012.
Carousell was seed-funded by a combination of government subsidies and QuestVC. Additional seed funding of $800 million was provided by the Japanese corporation Rakuten.
Golden Gate Ventures, Rakuten, 500 Startups, and other investors followed up with a $1 million investment in November 2013.
Sequoia Capital, Rakuten Ventures, 500 Startups, Golden Gate Ventures, and Darius Cheung raised $6 million in November 2014 from Carousell’s series A investors.
Tokyo-based company Rakuten raised $50 million in a Series B funding round led by 500 Startups, Golden Gate Ventures, and Sequoia Capital. Carousell used the funding to expand into Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.
Carousell now has over 40 million listings and is one of the largest and fastest-growing marketplaces in the world.
The majority of its users fall between the ages of 16 and 34, with each user accessing the Carousell app an average of ten times per day.
Further, Carousell is the most downloaded shopping and lifestyle app in Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.
The Carousell narrative is a beautiful and inspiring tale of tenacity, determination, and perseverance. We can’t wait to see what the team accomplishes next with such attributes.
Key Takeaways from Carousell Business Model
Carousell is a platform for allowing buyers and sellers to interact through the purchasing and selling of goods. It offers the opportunity for both our buyers and sellers to choose the best method of delivery!
