Malaysia & Singapore, 02 August, 2022 - Southeast Asia’s largest integrated car e-commerce platform CARSOME Group Inc (CARSOME) recently celebrated its seventh year anniversary, off the back of over 260,000 completed transactions since inception and millions of customers served through its platform. Since its establishment in 2015 with the mission to bring trust, choice and transparency, CARSOME has innovated the used-car market through data and technology and become a household brand in the region that brings consumers an alternative to buy and sell their used car.

How It Started

CARSOME’s journey started seven years ago. Co-Founders Eric Cheng and Jiun Ee Teoh (JT) met over a coffee chat, talking about their exhausted used car buying experiences as two frustrated customers. Soon they realized such an experience was not just common; it was a norm. Both of them decided to find a solution.They knew that the process had to be standardized, made digital and with a customer-first approach in Southeast Asia. Then they created CARSOME, with the mission of transforming and reinventing the car transaction and ownership experience in the region by bringing trust, choice and transparency to customers.

This mission remained unchanged for the past seven years, from the first car sold through the platform to the 260,000th and beyond. Today, CARSOME has built a trusted and liked household brand in the region with millions of customers served through its platforms. CARSOME has grown into the region’s largest used car e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia measured by either transaction volume or value, selling more than 18,000 cars per month totaling more than US$1.7 Billion annualized value.

Key Milestones and Achievements

From Malaysia to Regional. CARSOME was bootstrapped from Malaysia by launching a wholesale business in 2015 and its first consumer-facing Inspection Center in 2016. CARSOME grew fast in its home market and soon became the top used car platform in Malaysia in 2018. They further expanded into Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand in 2016, 2019 and 2020, and today CARSOME is leading by market share in every market they are present in. Markets outside Malaysia also become CARSOME’s strongest growth engine and are expected to contribute to more than 40% of group revenue by end of this year.

From Wholesale to Retail. CARSOME test-launched retail business in Malaysia with its first consumer-facing Experience Centre during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. Within less than two years, CARSOME’s retail business has expanded into all four countries and become its fastest growing business, delivering more than 10x growth year-on-year and becoming an important pillar in addition to existing wholesale business. Today, it’s already contributing to more than 25% of group revenue and is expected to contribute to about half of the group's revenue in the mid-long term. Recently, CARSOME also launched PJ Automall, one of the biggest offline Experience Centers in Malaysia to further strengthen its retail business, as well as online-to-offline hybrid offering for customers.

Expanding “Phygitally”. CARSOME continued to expand footprints with more than 120 consumer-facing Inspection and Experience Centres across 4 countries, interconnected through logistics hubs. In 2021, launched the region’s first and largest state-of-art inspection and reconditioning center – which CARSOME’s employees voted for the name: CARSOME Certified Lab in Malaysia with a monthly 2,000+ cars reconditioning capacity. The company expects to launch 3 more CARSOME Certified Labs by the end of this year, which will also cover retail reconditioning demand in Indonesia and Thailand.

Launching CARSOME Academy. In 2021, CARSOME established CARSOME Academy in Malaysia and welcomed the first batch of students. The programme, championed by its Co-Founder JT, offers Malaysian youth technical training and guaranteed career opportunities upon graduation. It is officially accredited as a Recognition of Prior Achievement Center by the Department of Skill Development under Malaysia’s Ministry of Human Resources. CARSOME also launched CARSOME Academy in Indonesia and Thailand in 2022 to further promote automotive workforce and job opportunities in the region. As of today CARSOME Academy has provided courses to more than 1,500 students totaling more than 6,000 hours of training.

Growing CARSOME Family. In 2022, CARSOME acquired a couple of strategic partners. It  completed acquisitions of iCar Asia – the region’s largest online auto classified platform; WapCar – the region’s leading auto content and social media platforms; and 51% of Cartimes – Singapore’s award-winning and leading car dealership with decades of operating experiences. As a group, CARSOME now manages more than 14 Million monthly unique visitors and more than 20,000 dealers. CARSOME is now able to bring together the best solutions powered by integrated data assets, to better deliver our promise to customers in the region.

Staying “hungry” for data. Data and technology innovation are at the core of CARSOME’s business, underpinning growth and profitability, and driving decision making. CARSOME has been constantly hungry for data and strengthened technology capabilities to provide enhanced transparency and optimized user experience. The past years’ transaction history, inspection records and customers’ digital footprints had helped build the region’s largest proprietary transaction dataset among used car e-commerce platforms in Southeast Asia. This has led to a series of core competitive advantages such as demand evaluation, automatic pricing algorithm, personalized content and offerings.

Winning Digital Bank License in Malaysia. Recently, CARSOME also won one of Malaysia’s first batch of digital bank licenses, as part of the consortium led by KAF Investment Bank. The consortium is committed to explore various ways of partnership, with the purpose of driving financial inclusion in Malaysia and beyond.

Propelling CARSOME into the Future

In Southeast Asia, cars are not just for mobility, it creates extra income, encourages freedom and allows for better jobs. CARSOME will continue to serve customers, focusing on solving real problems and building a business that enriches their lives.

More recently, CARSOME announced the appointment of football legend, Eric Cantona, as its brand ambassador. As one of the greatest footballers of his generation, Cantona and CARSOME both share a common drive in their relentless spirit to go above and beyond for their fans and consumers.

Cheng concluded: “Despite the current climate of an ongoing global recession, growth in demands for used cars continue to remain strong in Southeast Asia. At CARSOME, we are optimistic about our prospects and expect a strong growth in this sector for the next five years, driven by factors such as a rising middle class, increasing car penetration and rising digitalization.”

“CARSOME’s journey to be where it is today has truly been a remarkable one. It has given us many moments of gratification when we go beyond just solving customers’ pain points, to injecting innovation into an industry that was driven by traditional practices. Seven years on, we will carry on with our goal of providing our customers with better peace of mind throughout their car transaction and ownership journey.” He added.

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