Carmudi, a multinational online vehicle marketplace, sees Bangladesh as a very potential market for its business because of faster internet penetration and e-commerce expansion, its top official said.
"The businesses are moving towards online platforms for buying and selling vehicles. Middle class segment of the people is on rise, resulting in their increased purchasing capacity in this densely populated country. The trend depicts strong strength and potentiality of the local car market," Erwin Sikma, Carmudi's Global Managing Director, told the FE in an interview over e-mail recently.
Founded in Berlin of Germany in 2013 by its mother company Rocket Internet, world's leading Internet Incubator, Carmudi started its Bangladesh operations last year.
Currently, Carmudi is operating in 18 different countries in Asia, Africa, Middle East and America. "Our target is to establish Carmudi as the number one car classified online marketplace in all countries across the world," Mr Sikma said.
He further said that "e-commerce market in Bangladesh is growing relatively faster comparing to other countries in this region thanks to the Bangladeshis' openness to accept new ideas and technological changes."
e-commerce is certainly making people's lives more easy and convenient. Having similar business model (online car classifieds) in Europe and US, Carmudi is in a position to better serve the local market, he added.
Mr Sikma, however, said that they are to face a lot of challenges such as political instability and low internet penetration. "We like to actually think of these as opportunities because these challenges are what fuel us to perform better towards a more effective and efficient working system and in turn, help us grow immensely."
Regarding other official matters and tax related issues, he said, "We have a very good local team who effectively takes care of the process in a very professional and responsible manner."
Based on the requirement and feedback of buyers and sellers, Carmudi continuously undergoes a process of improvement and try to develop its website, he said, adding that they also try to cope with the local culture and market.
Apart from a robust central team in Germany in charge of developing products, the vehicle specific website has very high quality contents and photographs to make its customers happy.
"We make sure that all the cars are of high quality, have original papers, and the buying and selling experience on our online platform is very convenient and saves a lot of valuable time of our consumers."
Carmudi website enables its customers to easily find or sell their car, motorcycle or commercial vehicle online. At the same time, vehicle dealers and agents get a trusted online presence through a personalised webpage, he said.
Carmudi has over 400 dealers listed on their website, in Bangladesh making it much easier and more convenient for individuals to find their desired vehicles from home, he mentioned.
"We offer a diverse range of vehicle listings, an intuitive website design and high security standards to avoid fraud. It is, however, important for us to offer our customers a platform with no tolerance for fraud, as we screen every single vehicle sent to us before uploading them on the site," Mr Sikma said.
While sharing his future plan globally, he said, "We have planned to open a Carmudi venture in one of the Middle Easters countries very soon, and expand our business to some African countries next year."
In a query about such market's performance in different countries, he said that all the countries around the world are doing pretty good. However, it is very difficult to judge the success of a particular venture as they have all joined the online market at different times.
Some have been in existence for longer than others. "Among all the countries, Carmudi is doing well in the Philippines, Myanmar, Bangladesh and Vietnam," he added.
The company launched its first venture in Myanmar, Mexico and Nigeria. The idea behind the initiative is to get all cars under one roof, he said, adding that Rocket Internet took a successful business model from the USA and Europe, and applied it to the developing countries around the world.
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