Qoo10 founder once worked in the middle of the desert – and he hated it

Internet-savvy shoppers in Singapore have all heard of Qoo10, an oddly-named and visually-cluttered platform where merchants can sell anything from smartphone accessories, soft toys to cosmetics.

While often confused with a soft drink of a similar name, the site is no slouch in sales. It generates over US$15 million in monthly transaction volume in Singapore alone, making it and Japan the top markets for the company. It has also expanded into Malaysia and Indonesia. China remains tough but potentially a lucrative long-term target.

Formerly known as Gmarket, the regional company rebranded itself after its Korean entity, worth US$1.2 billion, was bought out by eBay. Not a bad result for founder Ku Young Bae, who has so far raised US$100 million for his venture, and who still retains eBay as a 49 percent shareholder in Qoo10.

But before Ku founded one of the more well-known ecommerce sites in Southeast Asia, he was in a vastly different industry, serving as a field engineer with global oil and gas firm Schlumberger. He wanted out.

“Being in the desert and the sea is tough. I didn’t love it too much, and I didn’t want to continue,” he says.

I can do better than eBay

The notion of starting an Internet business became attractive. It was the Dot-Com Bubble after all, and companies like Lycos, Amazon, and eBay had begun exploring new business models.

As an engineer, Ku was drawn by the opportunity to work with internet technology, and he found ecommerce offerings in South Korea wanting.

“I looked at eBay but it felt like there are many things to improve on. It needed better features.”

The field was still quite empty then. Aside from eBay, there was virtually nobody else in Korea. This meant that cost requirements were simple, as online advertising was still nascent and prices were dirt cheap.

He needed only US$2 million to start, and raised a series A round of US$7.5 million.

“Today, advertising channels are established by Google, Facebook, and Yahoo. They have the ad pricing tables, and you have to follow it.”

Furthermore, merchants were already quite familiar with eBay and ecommerce, more so than counterparts in Singapore when Gmarket launched there.

First movers have it rough

The ecommerce landscape in Southeast Asia has diversified since Qoo10 came in. There’s an explosion of shopping sites in the region founded by startups. Bigger Asian players like Rakuten and Taobao want a slice of the region. Rocket Internet, meanwhile, has poured hundreds of millions into its ecommerce ventures.

These new operations are benefiting from the effort Qoo10 has put in to educate the market.