December 3, 2013
Jakarta – A new product comparison website “Pricebook” is now launched in Indonesia, offering online shoppers the aid of choosing the right product and the right seller.
According to Tomonori Tsuji, the CEO of Pricebook, shoppers will be able to save time and budget they have been spending upon online purchase, choosing the right product for the right price at the right shop through Pricebook. The price range information and coming price-drop feature will be helpful to not only online shoppers but also offline shoppers doing price research before they go buy at a store.
He mentioned that Pricebook is convinced this product and price comparison market will grow huge, referring to the history of Japanese e-commerce market. Kakaku.com, the largest electronics comparison portal in Japan, started its business in 1997, the year of opening era of e-commerce. It was the year Japan’s marketplace giant, Rakuten, launched and the year ahead of Amazon’s arrival. At the time, the forecast made for e-commerce was not always bright.
“However, as the market size grew rapidly, more than \$100B in 2013, so did Kakaku.com, now attracting over 40 million monthly visitors. Indonesia’s BtoC e-commerce market size expected to rise from \.56B in 2011 to \$3.56B in 2015, this country alone has a huge potential for another e-commerce related business,” Tomonori added.
“Price comparison media is one of the biggest opportunities for startups to take. In Japan, the price comparison media giant, kakaku.com is valued at 4.3B USD at the stock market and they are still growing. I strongly believe there must be huge price comparison media in South East Asia market in the future. Absorbing the insights and know-hows seen in the past 10 years in Japan market how Kakaku.com and price comparison media has grown, Pricebook is trying to capture this magnificent business opportunity and to be the No.1 media in this category”, explained Masahiko Honma, Co-founder and general partner Incubate Fund, who made seed stage investment into Pricebook.
Members of Pricebook, being a Japanese headed startup backed by a Japanese venture capital, have seen this rise with their own eyes. In detail, Tomonori explained that the difference from other competitors Pricebook seeks to offer is lowest-price search and word of mouth.
“Often times, even after shoppers have decided which product to buy, they have trouble finding the lowest price. There are two reasons for it. The existing search engines do not always return the best results like incorrect price or wrong product, and they cannot check so many shops themselves,” he said.
Starting with gadgets, Pricebook assists online shoppers in mainly two aspects. The first being product comparison site, visitors will be provided with product ratings, specs, reviews and forum threads to choose what to buy. Keyword or directory search methods and recommendations are to support their research. The second being price comparison, Pricebook lists online shops in price order, detailing each shop with ratings and other facts.
Pricebook holds lowest-price rate as a major KPI, while running checks to filter out products listed in the wrong place. As for the products/merchants’ reputation, millions of accumulated user reviews and forum threads will be displayed on the site. Pricebook will be putting emphasis on creating a communication space for geeks, piling up real usage experiences. This reputation information will also accelerate Pricebook’s growth attracting SNS, forum or classified ad shoppers who put trust with seller their top priority.
Pricebook’s future strategy includes adaptation to the mobile-love country with responsive design and native apps. No competitor has yet established a presence in Indonesia. Pricebook is confident that the company has much room to enter in various fields; for they believe the more information difference exist, the more necessity of Pricebook’s mission to bring scattered facts together.
“Indonesia and Southeast Asia as a whole is in the mid of its strong growth resulting in explosion of online content volume, thus needing aggregators. Our mission is to enhance the growth of e-commerce side by side with all the players which are the customers, merchants, distributors and manufacturers. We know how easy online shopping should be for customers, and how valuable e-commerce data will be for sellers. We are here to offer that,” said Tomonori.
One of the merchants joining Pricebook is Lazada. “Pricebook is a brand new price comparison site with a good search algorithm and managed by good people from a reputable company. That’s why Lazada Indonesia believe that we can grow together through this affiliate partnership,” said Bachtiar Rifai, Affiliate and SEO Manager of Lazada Indonesia. Tomonori also mentioned that Pricebook gives the opportunity for merchants who wish to put their product information and ads on the website. “Feel free to contact us at info@pricebook.co.id,” he said.
About Pricebook Co., Ltd.
Pricebook Co., Ltd was founded in September 2013 in Japan by 2 Japanese men with experience of SEA business to build and operate shopping search engine Pricebook. The company aims to "adapt proven know-hows to the huge & fast growing market, offering a No.1 platform for online shoppers". The company chose Indonesia as their first target, considering its potential and the degree of competition. It is backed by Incubate Fund, the largest and best known seed to early stage focused venture capital in Japan.
About Incubate Fund
URL: http://incubatefund.com
About Indonesia’s e-commerce market
The population of 238 million being No.4 in the world, the number of Indonesian internet users is said to reach 72.7 million (penetration rate 29%) in 2013, further expected to expand to 128 million (penetration rate 39.8%) by 2016 (*1). E-commerce market size including CtoC transactions is expected to grow from \$4B in 2012 to \$18B in 2015(*2), while for BtoC transactions from \$1.04B in 2012 to \$3.56B in 2015(*3). Indonesia’s growth story is built on a number of factors: 20 percent year on year increases in internet users, rapidly growing discretionary spending among the middle class, and the entry of a number of high profile eCommerce players within the last 1-2 years(*2).
（*1）eMarketer：In Indonesia, a new digital class emerges - May 12, 2013 https://www.emarketer.com/Article/Indonesia-New-Digital-Class-Emerges/1009723
（*2）Vela Asia：Indonesian e-commerce market size to double in 2013 to US\$8B - July 11, 2013 http://velaasia.com/indonesian-ecommerce-market-size-to-double-in-2013/
（*3）eMarketer：B2C Ecommerce Climbs Worldwide, as Emerging Markets Drive Sales Higher – Jun 27, 2013https://www.emarketer.com/Article/Indonesia-New-Digital-Class-Emerges/1009723
Contact Information
[Company Name] Pricebook Co., Ltd.
[Director] Tomonori Tsuji
[Address] 2-23-1 Akasaka, Minato Ward, Tokyo, Japan
[Telephone] +81-3-6667-4992 (Japan)+62812-9334-1685 (Indonesia)[Website] https://corporate.pricebook.co.id/[Email] marketing@pricebook.co.id ###
[Reference]Product page sample: https://www.pricebook.co.id/Apple-iPhone5-16GB/PD_00003474Brand page sample: https://www.pricebook.co.id/brand/apple/Shop page sample: https://www.pricebook.co.id/shop/bhinneka/
Tomonori Tsuji – CEO of Pricebook (https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomonoritsuji) Graduates Univ. of Tokyo, starts career as a SEM/SEO/affiliate/ad network marketing consultant at an internet advertisement agency. Then joins a Singaporean startup as a business manager, in which Pricebook was developed. Spun out in May 2013 to build the current team. 26 years old.
Masahiko Honma – Incubate Fund (https://sg.linkedin.com/in/masahikohonma) Masahiko Honma is co-founder and general partner of Incubate Fund, the largest seed stage investment group in Japan, with the focus of investing into mobile, gaming, and internet media startups in Japan. The total asset under management of this fund is 100M USD. Masahiko made good track records of co-founding and creating mobile gaming developers including Pokelabo and gumi.
Comments