Update: Co-founder Qiuyan told me, “The main investor is called XGS Venture Partners – formed by a group of Ex-bankers. The others include a private investor and our main supplier (a long term partnership).” There isn’t any website for XGS yet since its newly formed.
Fresh from the oven — We received news that Sold.sg, a Singapore-based online penny auction start-up has raised “almost S$1 million” (about US$773 455) in its latest round of funding.
Some of you might remember Sold.sg which we covered about three months ago. The e-commerce start-up was founded by Tian Qiuyan, Angeline Tham, and Chan Chiou Hao in July 2010 and was already gaining steam back then.
It now boasts 40,000 loyal users in Singapore – and with the new funding, Sold.sg plans to expand its business regionally.
First stop? Malaysia. And it will operate a similar penny auction e-commerce model on a separate Malaysia domain — Sold.my. Check out our previous coverage here to understand more about its business model.
For folks who wish to get the latest gadget at a cheap price, you can check out Sold.sg. And damn, another lucky guy has just bought a Nintendo Wii for just S$39.85…
Willis, what on earth are you doing!?!? Promoting sold.sg? Are you kidding…you are supposed to be the most credible Asian tech blog. OMG. Lost a bit of respect already. I’ll give you a hint Willis. Look at the usernames of “winners” on their site. Do these look like REAL usernames to you? “SeowSeow 66″ , “kitekite”, “PROBIDDERR”, “Banker”, “WTY”, “LLL”, “cool”, “hey”, “Ddz”, “father”, etc. etc.Think about this dude. Penny auction sites are WELL KNOWN to be scams. Sigh…there are so many suckers in this world.
Hey Neils. I would call it a gamification of the online auction model. Not much of a scam — it’s legal for sure and you know how strict our Singapore law is. And judging the site’s credibility based on username is kinda harsh. It’s not a social network like Facebook and thus doesn’t need real identity for username. It does require a real paypal account or credit card though. but yes, real names does provide more credibility. But not having it doesn’t mean it’s a scam.
Nvm, all I know is penny auction sites like these are ALL scams. Google and you’ll find out for yourself. And it’s a form of GAMBLING. It’s nothing to do with gamification. I think you’re misusing the term here. Anyway I despise such sites and people who start them. Majority of the bidders are losers and the winners are bots with fake cheesy usernames like “father”. LOL what a joke. To each his own, if you think you can win a Wii for $30, good for you. Happy playing! It’s no wonder internet scams like HYIPs, penny auctions can exist indefinitely. People are foolish.
And I don’t think you get my point about the usernames. I’m not saying they must use real names. I’m saying the usernames look FAKE and UNNATURAL.
I can see where you’re coming from. Some might say it’s a gamble but others’ (like me) might say it’s a way to make money. Businesses need to make money so yeah… that’s how they make it. It’s unethical if Sold.sg use certain software/dirty technique to increase number of bids.
But that i wouldn’t know. If I do know that’s true, I will surely give them a PR hell. You can mark my words for this. If everything is stated on the site and users are willing to play the auctioning game, then yup, it should be fine. And for my gamification + ecommerce auction comment — See: http://gamification.org/wiki/Gamification_of_CommerceAnd thanks Niels12. You brought on a good discussion.
I don’t think they would have gotten almost a $1 million in funding if it was a scam..
It is also my opinion that all “sensible” penny auction sites make use of scripts to help themselves with the bidding. Otherwise it is a sure loss making recipe to operate such a business. I also agree that penny auctions are closer to gambling than computer/online gaming.
But I’m not against these sites. Afterall, there are plenty of “suckers” who buy 4D. I think penny auction sites put in a lot more effort to “entertain” compared to 4D lottery.
These sites have become very popular in the US, so popular that an entire book was recently published covering the penny auction industry from start to finish.
No one says that Casinos are a scam even though the house always wins. Its online entertainment shopping at best. I’ve probably lost more than I’ve won but would I continue to use legit sites like Sold? Definitely.
There. Scam scam scam. You admit they use bots to outbid those poor victims right? And no one can refute the fact their usernames look FAKE.
Says the guy who’s starting a penny auction site.
Swoopo(the godfather of penny auction sites) raised $10 million back in 2009 from venture capitalists and today they are bankrupt.
The more successful Sold.sg is, the more they are going to be scrutinised by the powers that be. Penny auction sites don’t have a good reputation globally, so there is always going to be controversy surrounding them.
Yep Swoopo collapsed and here we are celebrating penny auctions.Woohoo! And if anyone wants to start a penny auction site, buy the pre-made script here and you’ll be up and running in no time: http://www.phppennyauction.com/ . Oh look it comes with “Automated testing/bidding bots”. Awesome!!! And that’s so cool their demo is so similar to sold.sg.
Now you can start scamming people overnight and Penn Olson will feature your innovative business. Have fun!
Scam or no scam. they got the money and it is in the bank now
even it is a scam, must give some credits to them for been able to fish an investor. penny auctions are mainly been manipulated to jack up the prices. (insider news)
Well I agreed with you. SeowSeow 66 sounded and looked fake and the way he or she bid is bot like. Look at the winning history of SeowSeow 66, he or she is willing to pay more then the retail price in some case.
A penny auction site gives you a chance to win a brand new item only in friction of their actual cost , Bids starts from penny
move further on .
Well Written post , Thanks for sharing the info .
I’ve been following the online penny auction industry since 2009 and would like to invite you to check out my blog and join the forum if you’re looking to learn more about penny auctions. http://pennyauctionwatch.com Thank you!
Online Penny Bid is a pure scam. Companies buy the script and software online. These script has auto function to increment a bit when a real person bid, so that it will be guaranteed not sold at low price.
Therefore, it doesn’t matter when it is done if it is midnight or not, there will be autobot script to bid just after the real person bid.
After collecting all the bids and if the bid exceeded the cost several times, the autobot will be stopped and release to the winner.
Therefore, this is a scam. No matter how much the person bid, it WILL NOT be release UNTIL, the autobot is stopped. The autobot is stopped ONLY if the collection of bids exceed the cost of the price several times.
The fact that the product is not in stock at all! Only after they have collected all the bids, they use the money to buy the product.
At each 0.01 increment, the bidding system makes huge profit!!!
If the product cost 100
0.20 + 0.22 + 0.24 and so on…will end up in high collection
This is gambling.
Hi,
just read this and i’ve no against or for these sites but the reason they have such a bad rep is because quite a few of them are run by shady companies and yes there are definitely bots set up to drive the prices higher. Recently i saw a bidder spent $17, 800+ worth of bids to buy an ipad+ipod+phone at $650.
Not only that, the penny auction site was running the same product in singapore, hong kong and malaysia at the same time. People from 3 different countries bidding against one another. Something does seem amiss right there.
Penny Auction sites is not ramification. It’s illegal in Singapore. Why? Just read the Common Gaming Houses Act in the Singapore Statutes. Just because it’s a registered business doesn’t mean it is doing legal things. They probably didn’t declare that they are a gambling business and may not have applied to the relevant authorities. http://statutes.agc.gov.sg/aol/search/display/view.w3p;page=0;query=CompId%3A6b7b6222-526e-42ce-ac9f-628fcb472b2a;rec=0
A few things to highlight from the Act.
Gaming houses declared public nuisances
3. Every common gaming house is hereby declared to be a common and public nuisance contrary to law.
4.—(1) Any person who —
announces or publishes or causes to be announced or published, either orally or by means of any print, writing, design, sign or otherwise, that any place is opened, kept or used as a common gaming house, or in any other manner invites or solicits any person to commit a breach of section 7, 8 or 9; or
(e)
conducts in or through any newspaper or any other periodical publication, or in connection with any trade or business or the sale of any article to the public —
(i)
any competition in which prizes are offered for forecasts of the results either of a future event or of a past event the result of which is not yet ascertained or not yet generally known; or
(ii)
any other competition success in which does not depend to a substantial degree upon the exercise of skill,
shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine of not less than $5,000 and not more than $50,000 and shall also be punished with imprisonment for a term not exceeding 3 years.