701Search to focus on promoting ‘ImSold’
> Operator of mobile app for buying and selling ‘preloved’ items has no plans to monetise it yet
KUALA LUMPUR: The operator of ImSold, a mobile app that allows users to buy and sell preloved items, is focusing on promoting the brand and growing its user base, and has no plans to monetise it yet.
ImSold is operated by tech firm 701Search Pte Ltd, which also owns online marketplace Mudah.my and its counterpart in Vietnam (chotot.vn) and Thailand (kaidee.com). 701Search’s parent is Telenor Group, which owns Digi.
To date, there have been over 1 million downloads of the app since it was launched in Malaysia in 2016. Malaysia is the first country where it was launched and over RM10 million worth of items have been sold via the app.
Its director Haywood Ho (pix) said it wants to build its audience and brand, and wait until people are familiar with the app before monetising its services.
“We generate revenue when users find our product useful and are willing to pay for it. But we haven’t started on any plans yet. We’re concentrating on growing and getting people to try it out,” he told SunBiz in an interview recently.
He describes ImSold as an easy way to sell and buy preloved items. ImSold’s target audience is young people aged 18-25, especially young women. Popular categories in the app includes fashion, electronics, home and living, babies and kids.
Besides having the same parent as Mudah, ImSold shares a similar concept, knowledge, history and office with Mudah, but remains a separate entity from its sister company.
“Mudah helps. It gives us some credibility. Mudah and ImSold do both buying and selling but it’s different people that we’re going after out there and the teams are separate. We think our audience needs different products that fit what they want and what they need.
“It’s like Lazada and Zalora. It’s complementary, it’s owned by the same owner but it’s different,” said the Singapore-based Ho.
Both Mudah and ImSold allow users to sell and buy preloved items. While Mudah sells big ticket items, including cars and properties to an older audience, ImSold is focusing on fashion due to its young demographics.
“They (young people) are not buying properties (yet) and we don’t want to concentrate on cars,” said the 35-year-old.
Recalling how the app was born, Ho explained that 701Search had previously wanted to leverage on its experience in selling and buying from Mudah and come out with a new and different product.
“We had the idea when we’re talking to people. We wanted to figure out what users want and we found out that students need to buy and sell things, but no one knew how to do it. We wanted to help solve this problem.
“We noticed that there’s a need for selling and buying smaller things ... like clothes, fashion accessories, so we decided to launch something for that audience,” said Ho.
He declined to comment on its resemblance to Carousell, another similar app, but claimed that ImSold has a better experience for users.
“We’re doing a lot of things for the future. We’ve done quite well, even though Carousell is in Malaysia,” said Ho.
He said ImSold plans to provide valueadded services in the future, such as delivery and payments.
“These would probably be part of our roadmap. We also need to figure out if people are interested. We’re still experimenting,” said Ho.
Last month, ImSold was launched in Vietnam, which was deemed an attractive market due to its growing young population.
“We have experiences in Vietnam within the group and noticed that there is no player there for this product. It’s just launched, we want to see how it goes. We’re also probably looking at Southeast Asia. If it does well, we’ll go to other markets as well.” Ho said it has had some collaboration with Digi and needs to explore more collaboration with the telco, adding that the long-term plan for ImSold is to be the place that people go to buy and sell their lifestyle items.