Duriana, a new mobile marketplace app, has just announced that there are over 110,000 product listed on its platform now.
According to the press release, Duriana’s inventory is not only vast but also diverse, spanning across many types of categories, which include pre-loved, home furnishing, fashion and electronics. Users can browse through an exciting catalogue of items powered by a host of different sellers — from your normal next door neighbour looking to cash in on pre-loved goods, to creative Etsy-type merchants and independent blog shops.
“In recent years, there has been an influx of businesses led by young, vibrant entrepreneurs. With an app like Duriana, anyone with a smartphone can start a business. As social commerce continues to grow in Singapore, these young entrepreneurs have eagerly adopted our app as their main way of selling and reaching new customers,” said Camilo Paredes, Co-founder of Duriana.
“In both Singapore and Malaysia, we surpassed the 110,000 listing mark in six weeks, which is a great achievement for us”, he adds in response to the company’s first big milestone. “It seemed almost impossible at the start, but we managed to soldier through and reach an ambitious target.”
Listings aside, are there any liquidity in the marketplace?
For any marketplaces to thrive, there must be a high liquidity. While there are a lot of listings on Duriana, are there a lot of people buying and selling on its platform? Are there real users uploading products for sale on the mobile app? In its 110,000 listings announcement, there are no mentions of its active users or its total downloads. Google Play estimates its downloads to be between 5,000 and 10,000 at the time of this writing, a number that might pale in comparison to other popular mobile marketplaces such as eBay or Carousell.
A quick check on its Twitter and Facebook also shows that there might be minimal activities on the mobile app. Prior to the PR announcement of its 110,000 listings milestones, there are a sudden influx of listings from newly setup accounts too. For example, this account here which listed 600 product listings yesterday:
Are these postings genuine? Are there many successful transactions done through Duriana?
Its competitor Carousell on the other hand, seems to be doing very well: Carousell’s Facebook and Twitter page is full of activities including testimonials from satisfied buyers and sellers. Its total downloads on Google Play is also estimated between 100,000 and 500,000, a significant number of downloads more than what Duriana currently has.
In this case, product listings might not be a meaningful metric or milestone to focus on. Perhaps it would be better for Duriana to focus on building its community, and focus on liquidity and user growth.
To be fair to Duriana, Carousell’s activities mostly centers around Singapore for now, judging from a quick skim on its Twitter feed, while Duriana seems to be targeting the larger Malaysian market, which currently makes up 80% of its total listings.
Competition seems to be heating up between the two mobile app, as they compete to capture more users onto their app. At the end of the day, the one with higher liquidity, or the one where buyers can successfully find sellers and vice versa, will emerge as a dominant app.
Do you use any of these apps to buy or sell stuffs? If you aren’t, you might be missing out!
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