This ecommerce startup is focused on Asia’s small, often-ignored markets

Beach in Karachi, Pakistan. Image by Faisal Saeed

Where other ecommerce platforms fear to tread, there is Kaymu. This Rocket Internet venture is an online marketplace for individuals or small shop owners to sell or auction used and new goods, kind of like a mix between Taobao and eBay. It operates in what Rocket classifies as “frontier markets” – regions of the world that lag behind in economic and human development. It’s present in a number of African countries, as well as European countries like Albania and Belarus.

Pakistan is Kaymu’s strongest presence in Asia. The marketplace launched there two and a half years ago – first under the name Azmalo, before it rebranded to Kaymu. Since then, versions of the site have been built in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines.

See: How Rocket Internet is Getting Into Pakistan On the Ground Floor

Get there before Carrefour

Kaymu looks at countries in which the retail landscape is fragmented, and where there aren’t many malls and mega-retailers like Carrefour around. This leaves the emerging middle class underserved and hungry for consumption.

“In Pakistan and Bangladesh alone we are talking about 300 million people, with GDP growth of up to eight percent per annum,” says Kaymu co-founder and managing director Niroshan Balasubramaniam. “They have to go to different areas of the city to buy T-shirts, shoes, furniture, and the traffic can be bad.”

He believes that, based on the quick adoption of the mobile internet, countries like these can establish online shopping as the norm even before investors decide to build brick-and-mortar shopping centers.

“Internet penetration is growing at a crazy level,” Niroshan says. “In Myanmar, five years ago, there was no internet, now five to eight percent are online. In Cambodia, five years ago, there was a mere one or two percent, today it’s near 25 percent.”

Monetizing in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka

In Pakistan, the Kaymu marketplace houses some 20,000 sellers, with about half a million listings. Bestselling items, according to Niroshan, are fashion, footwear, and jewelry. “It’s not your Rolex obviously, but buyers appreciate having a huge assortment in one spot,” Niroshan says.

Kaymu’s sellers are mostly shop owners and housewives. A third type of seller does it on the side, as additional income next to their other job.

Like Taobao in its early days, Kaymu first introduced its service without taking a fee from buyers and sellers. In Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka it recently introduced fees, but it hasn’t yet in the other markets.

“When do you start monetizing? That’s the big question,” Niroshan says. “If you start too early, chances are you will not be relevant. Enough of our sellers have to feel they are making enough money on our platform. […] You also need to be relevant for buyers. They should come to the platform and find everything they need.”

In Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka Niroshan felt the level of maturity had been reached. According to him, Kaymu lost only few sellers when it started charging commissions.

Commitment to education

Will Kaymu go the way of Lamido?