Priceza.com aims for the top in Southeast Asia

The investment will enhance its teams and resources to become No 1 in its five markets outside Thailand.

Thanawat Malabuppa, co-founder and chief executive officer of Priceza, said yesterday the company aims to double its revenue this year to Bt30 million and next year to Bt60 million. 

Thailand will be the priority market but the revenue shares of Thailand and abroad will be about 50:50 next year, increasing from 70:30. 

“Now, we are number one in Thailand, but still in the top 3 in the other markets. We just stepped out abroad in 2013 – started in Indonesia and entered the rest last year,” he said. 

The website’s revenue comes from “cost per click” that leads customers to e-commerce websites. 

In Thailand, only about 4.5 million people visit Priceza.com per month, of whom about 2.5 million click on a merchant’s link to go shopping. 

“The 2.5 million people shopping on our partners’ websites account for 75,000 orders per month, which calculates to Bt500 million in monthly online purchases,” he said.

Next year, Priceza will spend the proceeds from series A funding on teams, marketing and operations across the region with the aim of strengthening its business position in each market.

Next year, Priceza.com will also increase online price comparison services for more product categories, from only e-commerce products to financial and insurance products.

“In the past, we offered a price comparison service on our website and mobile site as well as mobile app but with the same plain features as the web. 

“We upgraded our mobile app with new features that aim to attract more users to Priceza.com,” he said.

It plans to post between 50 and 100 hot deals for users who come to check prices. The barcode scan feature will help people shopping in a physical store to do price comparisons easily and instantly. 

“We just released version 4.0 of the Priceza app, which has already surpassed 150,000 downloads. We expect to hit one million by the end of 2016,” he said.

About 55 per cent of traffic comes from mobile – both the mobile site and app. It expects next year to be 60-70 per cent. 

“Mobile has two times higher engagement than websites,” he said.

Next year, everything in Thailand will double, including users to 9 million, leads to 5 million transactions and partners to 1,000 online merchants. 

Priceza is backed by CyberAgent Ventures, the leading global investor in online businesses since 2013. 

However, there is some confusion in brand awareness of Priceza.com, so Priceza is launching an online marketing campaign called “Don’t rush… Get the best price. Check Priceza.com” to urge shoppers to compare prices on Priceza.com prior to any purchase, while a mobile app has been released in response to the growing interest in mobile shopping.