Carmudi expects steady expansion of PH car market

Leading car classifieds site Carmudi sees the big potential for its business in the Philippines, as the country’s strong economy continues to boost the purchasing power of consumers and drive the growth of automotive sales.

‘’In terms of actual growth and market potential and whether the market is ready for this type of business, we see the most potential in the Philippines,’’ Subir Lohani, managing director for Philippine operations of Carmudi, said in a briefing Friday.

According to Lohani, Carmudi is expecting vehicle demand in the next five years to steadily increase, especially if the country would hit a GDP (gross domestic product) per capita of $5,000.

‘’The per capita GDP is close to $3,000 now. A per capita GDP of $5,000 is usually considered the turning point wherein you will see an explosion in car sales,’’ Lohani said.

Lohani noted that of the six million vehicles on the road to date, about 4 million are motorcycles. This scenario, however, is expected to start changing once the country sees further increases in its per capita GDP.

With this expected boom in car sales over the medium term, Carmudi has decided to earmark a ‘’significant portion’’ of the $25-million fund it had raised recently for the Philippines.

The $25-million funding, which will be spread across Carmudi’s operations in Asia and Latin America, came from investors including Asia Pacific Internet Group (Apacig), a joint venture of Rocket Internet and Ooredoo; Holtzbrinck Ventures, a leading consumer Internet investor; Tengelmann Ventures, a division of international multi-sector retailer Tengelmann Group, and another undisclosed private investor.

At present, Carmudi claims to be the No. 1 car marketing platform in the Philippines in terms of listing, as it has about 25,000 listed vehicles to date.

Site traffic, meanwhile, averages at more than 700,000 views a month, of which 50 percent are considered unique visits.