If you are actively following blogshops in Singapore, chances are you would have heard about Carousell.
Available in Singapore since 2012, the beautiful app provides its users a simple and easy way to sell your products. “We truly hope it will help you sell the stuff that you’ve always wanted to sell but procrastinated doing so time and again. We’ve made it super simple, and will keep making it simpler, and simpler,” said the team when it was first launched.
Since then, Singaporean users have fallen in love with the ease of app usage. Other than allowing you to list your products you want to sell, you can also beautify your products with preloaded photo filters, pretty much like Instagram. Carousell also allows you to curate and personalize your own browsing experience by following people of the same tastes and interest.
carousell sells things that are so cheap. i can shop there everyday alr.
— ? rxchxl ? (@daintykittens) November 12, 2013
Got a super great deal on carousell im damn happy THANK U M-COMMERCE
— Victoria Tong (@ketchubby) November 12, 2013
Fucking love carousell. Now I dont have to sell my impulse buys to karang guni uncles.
— Claudia (@cloudmonsterr) November 11, 2013
carousell makes me go craycray
— Oh-So-Funky (@Jielinnnnn_) November 11, 2013
Too active scrolling carousell, at least once a week needa buy something there
— AISYA AMAD (@chibified) November 11, 2013
Notice that all of the tweets are selected from Twitter on the same day.
With its popularity, the Carousell team has just announced that it has raised a total of S$1 million in seed investment to accelerate the company’s mission of inspiring millions of people worldwide to start buying and selling through their mobile phones. The round was led by Rakuten and includes Golden Gate Ventures, 500 Startups, Danny Oei Wirianto and Darius Cheung.
The seed funding will enable the company to expand its product and community teams to grow Carousell in Southeast Asia, with Malaysia and Indonesia first in the pipeline.
“We found that the mobile first approach is the future. Our focus on mobile has attracted a young demographic mainly between 16-34 years old, who are absolutely hooked to Carousell,” said Quek Siu Rui, Co-founder of Carousell who oversees product and customer support.
On average, a Carousell user would open the app about 10 times a day and spend about 25 minutes on it daily. In comparison, a Facebook user opens the app 14 times a day and uses it for 30 minutes daily. To date, the community has created a million listings on the Carousell marketplace, and over 20% of that ends up getting purchased. 80% of the listings consist of fashion and beauty products from brands such as Zara and Forever 21, technology gadgets from the likes of Apple and Samsung, and personalized gifts handcrafted by talented individuals.
What this means for users is that there will be more exciting updates to the Carousell app, and users from not just Singapore and Malaysia, but soon, Indonesia users will be able to enjoy the Carousell app.
In case you are wondering who’s behind the Carousell app, it is created by two Singaporeans and a Malaysian, whom knew each other when they were studying in the National University of Singapore.
Inspired now?
Read also: Need a break from studying? Check out the best of NUS confessions
