New marketplace for Smartphone generation launches in Singapore

Singapore 13 August 2012 – Bargain hunters, clutter clearers, and bric-brac collectors can now converge on a new mobile marketplace, called Carousell. Developed by a start-up company of the same name, Carousell aims to connect individual buyers with sellers of pre-loved and brand new items, in a fun and social manner. Carousell is unique from other buy-and-sell platforms, as the users can connect and engage with each other through the app. Carousell has interactive features, allowing individuals to “Like”, “Comment” and “Share” items for sale, as well as “Follow” other users with similar tastes. Carousell connects to other social media platforms, including Facebook and Twitter. Carousell was made available today for free download on the iPhone Singapore App Store and the developers are working to expand it to other mobile platforms later this year.

Carousell is simple and fun to use. To list an item for sale, the seller takes pictures of the item, beautifies it, describes it and puts it up for sale. Buyers can scroll through a range of categories, such as Photography, Handmade, and For Her. Users can personalise their own marketplace by “Following” other users and friends of similar tastes and interests. When a buyer indicates interest to make a purchase, Carousell sends a notification to the seller. The buyer and seller can then enter into a private chat session within the Carousell app, to discuss information, such as details of the item and location of transaction. This allows the buyers and sellers to connect, without revealing any private information, such as contact numbers or email addresses.

Other advantages of Carousell are:

• Selling made easy. Listing an item for sale on other platforms, such as online forums, blogs or marketplace websites can be complicated, taking anywhere from 10-15 minutes. This is because it requires the user to take a photo with a camera, transfer it to a computer, log into the relevant website, upload the image and embed it into the post. With Carousell, users can do this seamlessly via their mobile phone, within less than a minute.
• One common marketplace. Carousell allows users to sell anything on one platform. The categories are For Him, For Her, Books, Photography, Gadgets, Handmade, Vintage, Sporting Gear, Beauty Products, Games & Toys, Lifestyle, Music Instruments, Textbooks, and Others. This makes it more convenient than other online marketplace platforms, which typically focus on one specific category, requiring users to log in and out of each marketplace website.
• Cutting through the clutter. Through personalising their marketplace, users can choose to follow people who share similar interests and sell relevant items. Users can choose to view only the listings they are interested in, and not be spammed by the rest. From a seller’s perspective, this means they can build a following of people who appreciate their items and are more likely to make a serious offer.
• An inspiring marketplace. Carousell makes photos of the items central to the users’ browsing experience. By reducing the amount of text, it ensures that scrolling through listed items becomes an easy and inspiring experience.

Although Carousell was launched today, the start-up had close to 100 users test-bedding their beta version since July 2012. The first sale of an item happened last week – an Amazon Kindle e-reader that was sold for S$75. Carousell expect to see the sales of items ramping up significantly, now that the app has been launched.

The Carousell entrepreneurial journey

“The idea for Carousell emerged when I looked around my room and realised there is a lot of valuable stuff that I do not use anymore. Although I had wanted to sell items for several months, I found it troublesome to put them up for sale on the existing online marketplace channels. During Startup Weekend Singapore in March 2012, I discussed the idea of an easy-to-use mobile marketplace with my friends. When they loved the idea as much as I did, we decided to apply for seed funding from the NUS Enterprise Innovation Practicum, and got started,” said Quek Siu Rui, who set up Carousell with Marcus Tan and Lucas Ngoo.

Armed with $7,000 Innovation Practicum funding, Siu Rui, Marcus and Lucas developed the iPhone app, while hot-desking at Plug-in@Blk71. The three friends are NUS students and alumni, who caught the entrepreneurial bug while on the NUS Overseas Colleges (NOC) programme. In April 2012, Carousell took part in the NUS Test-bed programme, an initiative by the NUS Student Union and NUS Enterprise that provides start-ups a chance to test-bed their innovative ideas amongst the NUS community. Carousell was selected as one of the top four winning ideas, and can now tap into a customer base of 45,000, consisting of NUS staff and students. Through the NUS Test-bed programme, Carousell hopes NUS students will use the app to buy and sell second-hand text books, sporting gear and gadgets.

“Carousell is a good example of how the various different entrepreneurship-related initiatives within NUS can come together. The three co-founders gained relevant experience while on the NOC programme, interning at start-ups in the Silicon Valley. They brought back this entrepreneurial spirit to Singapore, and conceptualised it into an app that is now available on a mobile platform. Along the way, they leveraged upon support from initiatives, such as Plug-in@Blk71 – our incubation programme that provides entrepreneurs with assistance to develop market solutions, the Innovation Practicum, as well as various events and activities organised to help start-ups,” said Prof Wong Poh Kam, Director of the NUS Entrepreneurship Centre.

Moving forward, the Carousell co-founders plan to build up traction and the user base for their app, before seeking formal fund raising, which will help them to grow the company.

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About Carousell

Carousell is the marketplace that inspires anyone to sell anything at all with a simple and fun iPhone app. It aims to make peer-to-peer buying and selling a lifestyle. Carousell was started to solve the problems existing in other marketplace platforms. Carousell is supported by NUS Enterprise. http://thecarousell.com

About NUS Enterprise

NUS Enterprise was established as a University-level cluster, to provide an enterprise dimension to NUS teaching and research involving the University’s students, staff and alumni. The functions of the Enterprise cluster complement the Academic cluster of the University to nurture talents with an entrepreneurial and global mindset. NUS Enterprise promotes the spirit of innovation and enterprise through Experiential Education, Industry Engagement & Partnerships and Entrepreneurship Support. The NUS Overseas Colleges (NOC) programme is a division of NUS Enterprise, and provides NUS students with a globally-oriented educational experience, in leading entrepreneurial and academic hubs around the world. Plug-In@Blk71 is another initiative of NUS Enterprise, with support from the Media Development Authority, in collaboration with SingTel Innov8. It is a strategic extension of NUS Enterprise’s incubation programme, targeting the interactive digital space in Singapore. www.nus.edu.sg/enterprise