This Malaysian site wants to clean up the ugly side of the wedding industry

Talk about weddings, and it is likely that shiny rings, flowy bridal dresses, and romantic ballroom dancing will come to mind – the stuff of fairy tales.

What most don’t realize is the ugly underbelly of the wedding industry, where vendors all too often conjure up ways to make unwitting couples cough up as much cash as possible. And it is by no means a small amount of cash – weddings make up an impressive MYR$7 billion (US$2.2 billion) industry in Malaysia.

“Weddings are a pretty cutthroat business,” explains Kelvin Leow, co-founder and CTO of online wedding network Wedding.com.my. “Some vendors see it this way: they only have one chance to earn your money, so they will push up their prices. They know that, regardless of whether they do a good job or not, you won’t be engaging them again anyway.”

Such stories are all too common to both Leow and his wife and co-founder Petrina Goh. Many of their friends emerged from their respective big days with huge debts because they did not have enough information to make the best educated choice. While such information can occasionally be found on wedding forums, combing through thread after thread finding the relevant details becomes a tedious process.

“It comes down to education and awareness. Our friends have many questions, such as where to buy this dress or hire that decorator, but there’s just no ecosystem to provide the most relevant information,” says Leow. “So my wife and I decided to create this portal to help them make the best decision.”

The platform today actively plays a middleman role between vendors and the 300,000 or so soon-to-be-married couples who tie the knot in Malaysia each year. “Users can browse our site for free, and that will never change,” clarifies Leow. “We monetize through subscription fees paid by the merchants. We charge them a premium, and give them unlimited leads in return. They can also upload pictures and information to inspire readers to visit their profile page.”

There is also a freemium model through which vendors can give it a test run. However, they get a limited number of leads, as well as a cap on the amount of content they can publish on their profile page.

A treat for the eyes

Wedding.com.my was first born as an online directory, but the couple quickly found that it wasn’t really effective. At that time, US-based startups like The Knot and Lover.ly were rolling out their Pinterest-inspired designs, and upon studying these websites they decided that a visually-centered approach should be the way to go.

“We aim to be the website to go to when you want to get married,” says Leow. “Even if you’re not buying, we want you to view, discover and be inspired by what you see – through pictures and videos. This is why we injected a very strong ‘visual search’ element to our platform.”

Getting ahead of the competition

Enter social commerce

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