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.
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.”
