Here’s a startup that’s using algorithms to modernize Southeast Asia’s printing industry

Print samples from Gogoprint. Photo courtesy of the company.

Printing is one industry that’s taken a big hit from the internet. With people today opting to consume content online, companies are putting more resources in digital distribution or even going digital-only.

Yet Gogoprint, a startup based in Thailand, believes that printing is here to stay – there are still use cases for, say, business cards, flyers, or leaflets. It estimates the market is worth US$25 billion in Southeast Asia alone.

“It is still a massive industry, and there has been so little progress during the last decades that we believe it is really ready for disruption,” says Gogoprint co-founder Alexander Suess.

So the company thought of a solution to breathe new life into printing businesses.

Gogoprint automates a lot of the printing process, making it efficient.

On its website, customers choose what they want printed and select the paper, format, and colors they would like to print with. They can upload their artwork file and Gogoprint prints and delivers it to their offices or homes.

While things are pretty easy on the consumer-facing side, they’re a bit more complex in the backend.

Gogoprint uses algorithms to look at many parameters such as paper, quantity, and delivery times and aggregates those orders into a “print-run” or a batch of prints. That way, it maximizes the space on each print sheet.

The result is a faster, cheaper process for consumers.

“Every print-run has considerable fixed costs,” says Alex. “With every additional order, we reach high economies of scale, as we can aggregate orders more efficiently. We pass those cost-savings onto our customers, and have reduced our prices a couple of times already since our launch in November 2015.”

Gogoprint’s revenue model is simple: people pay the company to print stuff for them. However, it doesn’t own the printers – it only buys capacities from selected printing partners.

Alex says Gogoprint is capable of printing orders in at least 24 hours – way faster than traditional printing houses, which take seven to 10 days.

Lightbulb moment

Expanding to Southeast Asia