Claiming Business Growth, Carsome Indonesia Inaugurates "Experience Center"

Last year's pandemic had quite an impact on the digital platform business for selling used cars Carsome. To DailySocial, Carsome Co-founder & Group CEO Eric Cheng revealed, when Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand went through phases lockdown Covid-19 in March-April last year, most of Carsome's business operations were suspended. Nonetheless, they were then able to quickly control the situation and keep the demand figures up to v-shape recovery in June 2020.

"In Q3 2020, we finally managed to fully recover to pre-pandemic transaction volumes due to the demand for private vehicle ownership as a safer mobility option in the midst of the pandemic (compared to public transportation). online or public transportation).

That moment later became a turning point for the company's rapid recovery and strong growth. So that in the Q4 2020 quarter, it managed to record the highest revenue, which was double the period before the pandemic. In addition, Carsome also managed to achieve group operational profitability in Q4 2020.

At the end of 2020, Carsome has also posted series D pendanaan funding worth $30 million or the equivalent of 424 billion Rupiah. Investors involved include Asia Partners, Burda Principal Investments and Ondine Capital. So far to be all-equity financing largest online automotive industry in Southeast Asia.

A year earlier, in early December 2019, Carsome announced the acquisition of series C funding of $50 million. This round was supported by MUFG Innovation Partners, Daiwa PI Partners, Endeavor Catalyst, Ondine Capital, as well as investors in previous rounds including Gobi Partners and Convergence Ventures.

Launch "Experience Center"

Launched for the first time in Malaysia last August 2020, in April this year Carsome inaugurated their "Carsome Experience Center" in Indonesia. Located at Jalan Sultan Iskandar Muda No.1A, Kebayoran Baru, South Jakarta, Carsome Pondok Indah Experience Center is a solution for consumers to buy quality and guaranteed used cars safely and easily.

Carsome plans to also open an Experience Center in Thailand this year. The hope is that consumers in all countries can also feel a safe experience and get quality assurance when buying a used car.

"We understand how difficult it is to buy a used car, for example, it is difficult to get accurate information, the condition of the car in listing different from the condition of the original car, many additional unexpected costs from the price listed on the listing, and there is no guarantee of quality are some of them," said Eric.

In particular, Carsome wants to make it easier for people to experience a comfortable and easy purchase. Offers a wide selection of used cars that have been selected and passed strict and high quality car inspection standards. Cars that have not been in a major accident, flooded, or have frame damage.

On the other hand, Carsome also wants to strengthen the used car industry in Indonesia, introduce a trusted way for consumers to buy used cars and of course build a trusted and integrated platform for certified used cars.

"After browsing detailed information and placing an order online on the platform, customers can visit the Carsome Experience Center to see the actual condition of the car, Test Drive, or to get more in-depth information from our Carsome consultants. With that, we hope to reach consumers who are usually hesitant to buy a used car due to a lack of trust," said Eric.

Asked what distinguishes the Indonesian market from other countries, Eric emphasized that Indonesia is the country in Southeast Asia with the highest sales volume of used cars, 2,5 million units sold in 2019 with marketsize around $20 Billion. The compound annual growth rate (2010-2019) for used car sales in Indonesia is 8%, while car ownership per 1.000 people stands at 77, compared to Malaysia (353), Thailand (243) and Singapore (94).

"Through the information from report MomentumWorks, as well as Indonesia's large population and geographic coverage, we believe that Indonesia is a market full of growth potential but not yet facilitated. This makes us very confident in the prospects, and we hope to expand this new way of buying a car to more cities in Indonesia," concluded Eric.