MeCan Trade to help Malaysians trade across borders without capital nor risk
KUALA LUMPUR: MeCan Trade, the first ‘social commerce’ platform in Malaysia, has been launched recently to help Malaysians trade across borders without capital nor risk
Into a new year, the Covid 19 pandemic continues to impact lives globally - from the way we connect, live, work to affecting health, careers and livelihoods.
In recent media reports, economists warn that Malaysia’s unemployment rate may be much higher and aggravated by the pandemic, citing that statistically, Malaysia has a five per cent unemployment rate, but economically, the country has a 30 per cent unemployment rate (as our labour participation is below 70 per cent).
A study by market research agency YouGov polled 665 fulltime workers revealed up to 92 per cent of employed Malaysians are experiencing stress over losing their jobs. The survey indicated that seven in 10 believe it will be hard to find another job in the face of unemployment.
When asked about the possibility of losing their job tomorrow, 71 per cent believe it will be “difficult” to find another one with a similar pay and attendant benefits, 40 per cent think it will be “somewhat difficult”, and 31 per cent think it will be “very difficult”.
For businessmen and retail owners, the situation looks grim. Traditional bricks and mortar entities and chain store models are crumbling.
From big industry players to small office, home office (SOHO) communities, everyone hankers new business notions which require little investment and provide quick and smart solutions to earn passive income or a job to sustain livelihood.
More are resorting to online platforms to earn income. With a majority of Malaysians having at least one or more social media platforms, according to Statista’s findings in January this year, about 81 per cent Malaysian population are active social media users.
This was about a one-third increase compared to 2016, in which the social media users amounted to approximately 60 per cent of the total population in Malaysia.
Many are looking for opportunities to supplement their income by embarking on e-commerce business avenues, especially for millennials and key opinion leaders (KOLs) who are savvy to smart phones and apps to socialise and in current times, make a living.
In view of this, enters MeCan Trade - the first ‘social commerce’ platform in Malaysia, a brainchild of Andy Goh (former founder of OldTown and current owner of Nam Heong restaurant chains).
Goh explained that e-commerce has taken the world by storm, especially during the pandemic.
“From a business perspective, traditional ways of doing business have become harder involving competition, product quality, logistic arrangements and sustainability,” Goh said.
“There is a paradigm shift using technology & big data efficiency to rebuild and transform suffering business owners through this difficult period.”
Costing RM30 million to set up the intrinsic digital infrastructure, MeCan Trade literally means “#EveryoneCanTrade”.
“The core value for MeCan Trade is to share the wonders of what technology can do to improve, accelerate and re-invent new business ideas. We already have all the resources in place, we just have to collaborate and execute.”