Qoo10 is an e-commerce platform based in Singapore. It has seven localized online platforms across six countries in the Asia. The countries include; Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, China, Japan and Indonesia where the websites are ”qoo10.co.id”, “qoo10.sg” and “qoo10.jp”. Qoo10 is known as “the number one ranked e-commerce website in Singapore and its parent company Giosis has established itself as a market leader in the region’s e-commerce space.”
Qoo10 in their website pledges their vision to uniting and creating business opportunities to buyers and sellers of diverse backgrounds, all over Asia, with an amazing trading experience. It also promises to change the shopping culture and creation of new opportunities in E-commerce by building trust between sellers and buyers, nurturing of sellers with their businesses and an efficient platform with technology.
Qoo10 allows selling of any goods and services on the internet with the exception of misleading items, adult items, illegally copied items, forged, lost, or legally prohibited goods such as weaponry and drugs. Anything can be found on Qoo10 making it a favorite for many to buy and sell, from the smallest products to branded ones.
The site also has a number of offers and promotions. In the Event & Coupon page, one is issued a daily Q.ticket. A Q-ticket gives you a chance to spin the Roulette Q and win prizes. The roulette Q allows you a spin a day. Qstamps, unlike Q.tickets, are usually exchanged for shipping coupons and discounts.
Buyers register free and may start buying items immediately. For sellers, however, the process is a little longer. A vendor has to get authorization through submission of a copy of their bank statement; identity card or Work permit and employment pass for foreigners.
To ensure quality in service, every seller has a star rating to enable buyers to know who to trust and in the cases of untrustworthy sellers, Qoo10 provides that the sellers only get the money after the buyer in point confirms delivery. Qoo10 offers a parcel delivery service, Qexpress.
In 2012, Qoo10 turned to Dynamic search Ads (DSA) in capturing all the search queries searched on Google. (This is very similar to what eBay does in the US) To date, Qoo10 uses DSA, which is paramount for a higher conversion rate in performing keyword research. This feature helps Qoo10 acquire more search traffic. The DSA function is reported to account for 10% of sales
HISTORY
Qoo10 is a collaboration between Giosis Private Ltd and e-Bay. Giosis has undergone massive transition over the years. It was initiated as Gmarket by its president and CEO Mr. Young Bae Ku in 2000 in Korea. Yahoo later bought 10% stake in the company. Gmarket grew across South-east Asia in Singapore, Malaysia, Japan and Indonesia. EBay acquired the company in June 2009 for a deal approximated to 1.2 billion US dollars, with Yahoo agreeing to sell its stake. The deal was set at US$24 per share, acquiring eBay at least 67% ownership. In May 2010, eBay partnered with Gmarket founder Young Bae Ku to expand Gmarket in Japan and Singapore. This move made Mr. Ku CEO of the new partnership. The joint venture saw eBay own 49% with Ku acquiring the rest 51%. (Lemon, 2016)
The new Joint Venture saw the formation of an e-commerce platform, branded Qoo10 in that year. The initial company was started with a seed capital of US$20 million.
PARTNERSHIPS
Giosis, Qoo10’s parent company partners with well-established enterprises such as Mecox Lane, a Chinese company for accessories and apparel and Yahoo, to ensure great marketing deals in the countries it is accessible.
The online Marketplace also partners with shopping malls and big retail chains. As published in a newspaper, Qoo10 looked to partner with the Paragon shopping center in Singapore and include the mall on its retail platform. This move was a leap from its previous strategy of just reaching out to the small merchants who needed an e-commerce platform. Mr. Hyun Wook Cho, Qoo10 Singapore Country Manager said, “As we tie up with mall owners, we automatically add their tenant retailers to our online platform. We are also tying up with big retailers.” (“Qoo10 in talks with malls to scale up online platform”, 2016)
Also, the Singaporean e-commerce platform partners with financial service providers like DBS Paylah, to enable their customers make payments via their Mobile phones. Qoo10 also partners with 7-Eleven, a chain of convenience stores, to help customers with no credit cards to pay offline. The commercial head for Qoo10’s in 7-Eleven’s Southeast Asian business section described the partnership as a”milestone with the addition of the 7-Eleven payment option.”
Giosis partners with other companies in advertising, event, promotion, and shipping services. It further offers partnership opportunities to anyone interested as described in their website.
Qoo10 also utilizes social media platforms like for advertising. In 2012, within 6 months of formation, the company had received an 89% increase in the Facebook traffic. (Phneah, 2013)
INVESTORS
A large stakeholder alongside Giosis in Qoo10 is e-Bay. In July 22nd 2015, however, a number of investors made investment deals in a funding round in the growing enterprise. Leading this group of companies was Singapore Press Holdings, a Singaporean media group, stumping up US$82.1 to help the site spread further across the Asian Region, and accelerate its expansion in Hong Kong, Malaysia, and China. SPH also aimed to aid the company explore partnerships in the areas of retail, advertising and content. The other investors included, eBay, UVM 2 Venture Investments LP, Oak Investment Partners, Brookside Capital and Saban Capital Group. The CEO, Mr. Ku Young Bae said, “With this new funding, we aim to further strengthen our position as the leading Pan-Asian marketplace.” (“Tech in Asia – Connecting Asia’s startup ecosystem”, 2016)
FINANCIALS STATISTICS
In 2012, Qoo10’s combined markets transacted 278 million in Singapore dollars, which was almost two times more than the previous year. In Singapore alone, Qoo10 transacted almost SGD30,000 daily, amounting to approximately SGD15 million in monthly sales and SGD90 million in annual sales. (“Giosis | CrunchBase”, 2016)
In a press release in 2012, the Qoo10 Mobile app had approximately 700,000 downloads across the five marketplaces at the time. Singapore alone contributed 450,000 app downloads (64%) and mobile sales adding up to SGD5.5 million (40%). The Worldwide mobile transactions were nearly one million. The mobile sales made up about 20% of the total sales in 2013. There were about 50,000 registered sellers as of March 2013 in Singapore and a total of about 900,000 users registered on their websites. Since January 2012, the estimated number of users registered per day was 1,000.
By April 2015, Qoo10 drew $20 million in monthly revenue from the Singapore market only with about 45,000 transactions daily, an improvement from the previous year’s 40,000 transactions every day. Singapore is Q0010’s strong market according to country manager, Hyun Wook Cho. He also added that by April 2015, the average transactions in the country had grown from $8 to more than $15 in the previous three weeks.
Qoo10 had 17.6 million users registered across the Asian region by April 2015. As of June the same year, Singapore alone had 1.8 million registered users with a gross merchandise volume of US$182 million in the whole of 2014. The total GMV for the whole region in 2014 amounted to US$408 million.
The following statistics cover the first three years after Qoo10 Singapore’s formation.
| SALES (SGD) | TRANSACTIONS | MEMBERS | SELLERS | |
| 2010 | 6.4 million | 770,000 | 88,000 | 5,000 |
| 2011 | 34.6 million | 3 million | 270,000 | 10,000 |
| 2012 | 91 million | 6.5 million | 430,000 | 30,000 |
| 2013 | 160 million | 12 million | 900,000 | 53,000 |
In Singapore, Qoo10 remains one of the leading e-commerce platforms. It, however, faces a lot of competition from similar companies. These competitors include Lazada, Zalora, Rakuten, and Tabao. As more people nowadays have access to the Internet, they have developed an appeal for shopping online instead of visiting the native brick and mortar stores. 50% of e-commerce in Singapore is accessible via mobile.