Grivy is Indonesia’s eBay for leisure services

Jan Oudeman, Grivy founder.

Jan Oudeman doesn’t want Indonesians to confuse his deal site Grivy with LivingSocial or Groupon. While all three companies offer a similar user experience and value proposition in Indonesia, Grivy utilizes an auction model. Oudeman, the company’s 27-year-old founder, claims there’s nothing dull about the other sites, but his is just more entertaining.

“Yes, it’s nice to get 50 percent off on deals,” he says. “But in the end […] it’s like getting a present packed in transparent wrapping paper. Nothing wrong with it, of course, but there are more exciting things on Earth.”

Oudeman claims Grivy is unique because of its competitive nature. He refers to the site as Indonesia’s “eBay for leisure services” and highlights the site’s auction block as the key ingredient that gives his company the edge in a market that loves discounts.

Grivy auctions off deals related to goods and services like holiday getaways, spa packages, kids items, and restaurant reservations. All of Grivy’s auctions start at Rp 10,000 (US$1), and bidders determine their own price thresholds. Becoming a winner on Grivy depends on your own price preference, but also largely on those of users competing against you. Oudeman claims that the thrill of winning an auction is almost as fun as the leisure prize itself.

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Grivy’s homepage is clean and simple. It has language options for English and Bahasa Indonesia, and lets visitors browse live deals in various categories based on city, number of people in a party, desired date, and time.

So I can finally afford to go on dates?

Oudeman says, “Our mission is to provide consumers with a never ending supply of amazing leisure activities on which the very same people decide on the final price themselves.” Oudeman believes Southeast Asia’s biggest market is interesting because Indonesians embrace technology fast.

Grivy has been around for a year in private beta mode. Last week the company had its first anniversary in Indonesia. Oudeman says, “Our system architecture was reviewed by Amazon Venture Capital which resulted in a grant of US$8,000. […] We are currently raising funds to speed things up.”

While Oudeman didn’t comment on Grivy’s exact number of site visitors per month, he claims Grivy has achieved 130,000 email subscribers in Indonesia. The site monetizes by charging its merchants a commission for using Grivy as a sales channel. It also charges an administration fee on top of each successful auction. If a user does not win the auction, they are not changed anything for participation (Oudeman claims other sites may charge US$0.01). Oudeman says Grivy is targeting US$10 million in revenue in Indonesia by its third year, and Grivy is ramping up efforts to sign up more merchants.

At the moment, the platform lets users reserve at restaurants and get discounts based on when they want to dine, but it also lets them discover credit card deals – something Indonesians are familiar with and fond of. Oudeman claims Grivy has also recently entered Bali as its second city in Indonesia, and this month he will launch native mobile apps for users and merchants on BlackBerry, Android and iOS. He says, “We are going after a solution that lets middle class affluent customers experience new services.”