Inside Carsome’s and Carro’s all-out war in Malaysia

Nikita Puri co-reported this story.

There’s no question that used-car platforms Carro and Carsome are close competitors. The firms have similar business models, compete in overlapping markets, and even raised their seed rounds within months of each other.

But one point of divergence is in how they have expanded into each other’s home markets. While Carsome’s presence in Singapore – Carro’s home market – has so far been limited, the same cannot be said for Carro in Malaysia, where the latter has gained a foothold primarily through a US$30 million injection into local player myTukar in 2019.

Since then, Malaysia has become a particularly vicious battleground for the two companies, according to multiple sources who spoke to Tech in Asia. The two automotive marketplaces have gone head to head to attract not just car buyers but also dealers – through similar marketing campaigns, no less. The same is true when it comes to talent: In recent months, Carsome has poached multiple myTukar senior executives.

“Carsome can’t move freely because Carro/myTukar is in Malaysia,” says a source who declined to be named. “Home turf is always more important.”

Carsome, Carro, and myTukar declined to participate in this story. A myTukar spokesperson, however, says that following its reorganization, myTukar “achieved record performance in January 2022.” The local car reseller’s revenue for the month was up nearly 40% from November 2021 (when the resignations happened) and over 100% year on year.

Previously, Carsome has denied targeting talent “from any company,” with a spokesperson telling Tech in Asia that “there is no attempt as alleged.”

A raid on myTukar, and data leaks

As Tech in Asia reported in February, Carsome has made a spate of new hires, including for senior positions, this year. At least eight of these new recruits had previously worked at myTukar.

While these employees joined Carsome between November 2021 and January 2022, documents reviewed by Tech in Asia show that Carsome had been planning the hires for some time: The company had provided job offers to six myTukar employees as early as June 2021.

But none of them left myTukar, at first. A myTukar insider says that the management believed that the six employees spoke to Carsome just to get a sense of what the latter was willing to pay.

Indeed, the insider says that all six employees received higher pay from myTukar after the poaching attempt. In fact, four of the six staff were promoted the following month.

In the end, however, those tenures were short-lived. By January 2022, the six employees had left myTukar, and all but one had joined Carsome. (The employees did not respond to Tech in Asia‘s requests for comment.)

Carsome’s “generous” incentives

Carsome’s buyback scheme

A direct threat