So at droom, we wake-up, sleep and dream everyday in terms of what can we do so that we can remove pain points for buyers and sellers and friction in the whole buying and selling process of used and new automobiles be it car, motorcycle, scooter or something else on the wheels or with motor.
We see two types of online offerings currently in the market i.e Online Classifieds Sites and automobile discovery Sites. In our view, both of these offerings have failed to address the real pain points for buyers and sellers. In fact in many instances, these two offerings have arguably made things worse.
Online Classifieds have done no innovation whatsoever in last 22 years (from the time Craigslist came into being in San Francisco). Online Classifieds, contribution to mankind is letting people do many things online that traditionally happened offline. When it comes to buying and selling used automobiles, Online Classifieds have failed in terms of not addressing the real pain points for buyer, such as – who is the seller and can I trust him, is the product genuine or legitimate, am I paying the right price, is seller going to negotiate or not, in what language will the seller talk when I call him or her, when can I meet him or her and how can I learn more about the vehicle more than just two badly taken pictures and badly written two line description. Similarly, Online Classifieds have failed to address sellers’ pain points, such as – who is the buyer and can I trust him, why so many people are calling me when I wanted only serious callers, why my phone has been circulated to all sort of people, how do I know the person is legitimate, why I have to negotiate about the price this hard when I do want to just sell it at the listed price etc.
From the time Craig Newmark in San Francisco founded world’s first Online Classifieds Craigslist.com, Online Classifieds has become a very large category online. Online Classifieds has done good job of bringing more and more people to do those things online, which happened only in the offline world in the past. However, beyond that online classifieds have brought no other innovations whatsoever in last 22 years. If they had brought innovations, today you would not see companies like AirBnB, Uber, and slew of services based marketplace or even career focused or real estate or dating Websites.
Second offering online currently in the market is automobile discovery platforms. These companies have done good job of building ecosystem and helping potential buyers during discovery phase to do more research, comparison and evaluation about their potential buying by offering content, videos, pictures, ratings & reviews, side-by-side comparison. However, once they help you in discovery platform, they take your information and start selling to dealers and brokers of automobiles. That is now how the transaction should be enables or at least not for used automobiles. These companies are good in building content, videos, ratings & reviews etc. but when it comes to hunters i.e. I know what I want but I am looking for the best offer in terms of selection, price etc., these companies have not really done much. These companies tend to operate more like online media companies that give you news and data on Best Selling, New Launch, Videos, Images of amazing vehicles etc. So globally we have companies like cars.com or Edmunds.com who are in car discovery business. In India, there are bunch of companies in the automobile, especially in the car discovery business online.
We truly hope that with droom, we will bring disruption and completely change how automobiles are bought and sold in India and both buyers and sellers will experience the 21st century’s true digital economy experience of buying and selling automobiles online.
