iPrice projects steady growth for local operations

By Patrizia Paola C. Marcelo, Reporter
ONLINE shopping aggregator iPrice Group Sdn Bhd is bullish on its prospects in the Philippine market as demand for e-commerce in Southeast Asia continues to grow.
Matteo Sutto, chief marketing officer of iPrice, said the company expects steady growth for its business in the region, including the Philippines where its website has around 2 million monthly visitors.
“We are extremely bullish for all the seven markets where we currently operate. Philippines has historically been one of our top performing and fastest growing market and we have no reason to believe such growth will slow down,” he said in an e-mail interview.
He added that iPrice is expecting growth for both its users and e-commerce merchants with the expanding presence of big players in the Southeast Asian (SEA) region.
“With a total size of e-commerce market in SEA doubling in the past two years… expected to reach $90 [billion] in 2025 as per last Google-Temasek study, the presence of multiple big players/groups such as Alibaba, Tencent and Amazon in the region fighting for supremacy and, as a result of this, the rising cost of the alternative paid marketing channels like Google and Facebook, we couldn’t be more bullish about the role of price comparison and product discovery in the e-commerce landscape, for both users and e-commerce merchants,” he said.
iPrice operates in Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia.
Mr. Sutto said that iPrice had been posting triple-digit growth each year since it started in 2014.
The electronics and price comparison unit, in particular, has been growing more than three times yearly, he said.
Last month, the company announced that it had received funding from LINE Ventures, with participation from Cento Ventures and Venturra.
The company plans to use the new investment for improving user experience and high growth markets.
“We are planning to double down our investment in our highest growth potential markets, including Philippines, and keep on improving the user experience, especially in our two core verticals — fashion and electronics,” Mr. Sutto said.
The company previously said that it was on track to reach more than 150 million visitors this year because of the accelerating growth experienced in Indonesia.
iPrice Group is based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and is an investment of the Asia Venture Group.