Marketplace is one of the most common business models in Southeast Asia nowadays. In one of our previous episodes, we talked to Aaron Tan, founder of Carro, about how he has built one of the biggest used-car marketplaces in Southeast Asia. Today, we are going to dig deeper into marketplaces again with James Tan, Managing Partner at Quest Ventures. Prior to this, James was co-founder and COO of 55tuan, a NASDAQ listed e-commerce group that grew to more than 200 cities and 5,000 employees across China. In this episode, we talk about all the business fundamentals of building a marketplace: from the advantages and challenges of building a marketplace to how to manage or control it, to the importance of timing in expanding to multiple markets. A someone who has built a successful e-commerce marketplace himself and invested in several more, James also shares the most innovative marketplace models in the market and how he believes the business model can be innovated.
Today, we are going to dig deeper into marketplaces again with James Tan, Managing Partner at Quest Ventures. Prior to this, James was co-founder and COO of 55tuan, a NASDAQ listed e-commerce group that grew to more than 200 cities and 5,000 employees across China.
Show notes:
2:10 Introduction to James Tan
3:48 Transition from startup founder to venture capitalist
5:35 Introduction to Quest Ventures
6:50 Most rewarding achievements of running a marketplace
8:40 What James was excited about marketplace
11:50 The advantages that a marketplace has to serve customers
15:08 How to manage or control your marketplace
17:00 The most innovative marketplace models that James has seen
19:22 Is a marketplace in Southeast Asia a regional business?
22:48 The timing for marketplaces to internationalise the business
25:00 How to localise in Indonesia?
30:58 The next market that Indonesian companies expand to
33:40 When should companies reconsider expansion
34:35 How to innovate the marketplace revenue model?
39:38 Does “marketplace” have a higher valuation multiple compared to e-commerce?
Many thanks to our guests James Tan; host Oscar Ramos; producers Eva Shi and Sagar Chaudhary; editor David; organizer Chinaccelerator; and sponsor People Squared. Be sure to check out our website www.chinaccelerator.com
Share, subscribe, review, enjoy!
To join our listener group on WeChat, please add SOSV Helper (WeChat ID: sosvhero) and ask for the group invitation.
To subscribe to our newsletter, please visit www.asiastartuppulse.com
Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/asia-startup-pulse
Email us: team@chinastartuppulse.com