Carousell

Market position

Carousell is described as the pioneer of mobile classifieds in Singapore and a regional leader in online classifieds, operating across eight markets in Southeast Asia plus Taiwan and Hong Kong following the 701Search merger, and reached unicorn status with a US$1.1 billion valuation in 2021. In Taiwan it competes with entrenched incumbents such as Yahoo! and Ruten, and its model is comparable to eBay and Craigslist.

The company positions itself around a mobile-first, social "snap to sell, chat to buy" flow, AI-assisted listing, and trust and convenience features such as verified reviews, escrow-protected Buyer Protection, integrated delivery and Carousell Certified authenticated secondhand goods.

Technology

The platform relies on machine learning and image recognition to speed up listing creation, automatically identifying items and suggesting category, title, description and price from a photo or video, with an ambition to cut listing time from 30 seconds to three seconds. Other technology features include image-based search and a trading card scanner, escrow-based in-app payments, and integrated delivery and logistics options.

Go-to-market

Growth has been mobile-first and community-driven, with listings shareable to Facebook, Instagram, Telegram and WeChat, offline events such as the Carouselland indoor bazaar held annually since 2015, partnerships with local media and financial institutions, and acquisitions or mergers to enter and consolidate markets.

Individual consumers buying and selling preowned and new goods, plus small businesses, merchants, car dealers, property agents and home-services providers using paid seller tools.

Geography

Headquartered in Singapore at 79 Ayer Rajah Crescent, LaunchPad @ One-North. Operations and services span Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, with group platforms also in Vietnam (Chotot.com) and Myanmar (OneKyat).

History

After an initial investment from Quest Ventures, Carousell raised roughly $1 million in November 2013 from Rakuten with follow-on participation from Golden Gate Ventures and 500 Global, followed by a US$6 million round from Sequoia India in November 2014 and a $35 million Series B in August 2016. It began acquiring companies in 2016, buying used-car marketplace Caarly and taking on developers from Watch Over Me and Duriana, and expanded regionally into Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, the Philippines and Australia. An $85 million Series C followed in May 2018, co-led by Rakuten Ventures and EDBI. In April 2019 Carousell acquired OLX Philippines in a deal with the OLX Group worth $56 million that lifted its valuation to $550 million, and in November 2019 it merged with Telenor's 701Search, valuing the company at more than US$850 million. A US$80 million investment from a Naver-led consortium valued the company at over US$900 million, and a US$100 million round led by STIC Investments in September 2021 took its valuation to US$1.1 billion. Talks to go public via a merger with L Catterton Asia Acquisition Corp, which could have valued the combined entity at up to US$1.5 billion, ended in May 2022.

Risks & controversies

Users have reported scams by fake sellers, and the Singapore Police Force said over 70% of e-commerce scams in 2018 took place on Carousell. In October 2020 a long-banned weight-loss product was reported to the Health Sciences Authority as being sold on Carousell and other platforms. In January 2022 a data leak exposed the personal data of more than 2.6 million users, including over 320,000 users in Hong Kong. App reviewers have flagged location filtering, image browsing and sales-tracking accuracy issues. The 2022 collapse of the SPAC merger talks, attributed to market volatility, difficulty arranging a PIPE and valuation concerns, left the planned public listing unrealised.