Carousell launches app in Malaysia

Singaporean app developer Carousell has officially launched its app in Malaysia as it predicts that the mobile commerce in the market sets to grow.This comes after the company first began its marketing efforts in Malaysia in January 2014. According to a statement from the company, the app has since then received an encouraging response with young Malaysians who form a majority of the early adopter community.“Users in Malaysia have been actively listings items for sale since January 2014 at a rate that sees listing numbers doubling every two to three months. The team [...] has also spent considerable time on-the-ground interacting with Malaysian Carousell users through a variety of events held throughout the year,” said the company in a press release.The release also cites that mobile commerce in Malaysia has grown rapidly over the last couple of years, from 5.5% of the total e-commerce market size in 2010, to close to 50% (RM 1.82 billion) in 2013. With the mobile share of online commerce in Malaysia projected to reach 59.6% per cent (RM 3.43 billion) in 20151, the country represents immense potential for Carousell, it said."The biggest takeaway from speaking with our Malaysian users so far has been that Carousell is a product that they, and many others like them, have been waiting for”, Quek Siu Rui (pictured right), one of the co-founders of Carousell said. “Our users really enjoy the convenience and ease-of-use of the app, and the fact that it allows them to shop and sell on-the-go extremely quickly. This is something that existing e-commerce platforms in Malaysia have yet to offer.”Late last year Carousell, through a partnership with Sequoia India, secured US$6 million in Series A funding. The company’s existing investors include Rakuten Ventures, Golden Gate Ventures, 500 Startups and serial entrepreneur, Darius Cheung, also participated in this round of funding. The funding was then said to be used to accelerate international expansion to countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia and Taiwan.The Carousell app aims to make online person-to-person buying and selling accessible and simple for the emerging smartphone generation worldwide. With Carousell, sellers can snap a photo and list an item for sale and buyers can purchase items just by chatting with sellers via an in-built private chat messenger.