CarWale..an auto portal that is trying to be different
Given the high involvement that people have with their automobiles, its only time before automotive portals become mainstream like established portals dealing in jobs, matrimonials, travels etc. Leading this trend in India is Carwale, a Mumbai based automotive site that, short of allowing you to actually buy the car online, has pretty much everything you may need with respect to your car. And proof that there is inherent potential in this space in general and in Carwale in particular, is the high profile SeedFund picking up a 30% stake in this portal.
Some people may question the role, an automotive portal can play in the actual car buying experience. Since for many a people, other than their homes, cars are probably the most valuable purchase, and they would like to physically interact with the car before they make any decision. Check out the comments on this ContentSutra post, that examines exactly this issue.
I think there are two specific roles an automotive portal can play. Because purchasing a car is a high involvement decision, there is the need to do an exhaustive research beforehand. The second role is the bringing together of prospective buyers and sellers of second hand cars.
And both these needs seemed to be addressed well in Carwale. In fact, I think its car recommendation tool is very well designed, in the way it elicits customer preferences. I gave it a dry run and found the form mirroring my own mental model, about how I would go about choosing my own car. I was pleasantly surprised. Give it a one minute try and decide for yourself.
Carwale is loaded with multiple features and tools. It has a used car valuation guide for 10 major Indian cities and a classified section for posting ads for second hand cars. Besides, there is an exhaustive database of car guides/tips, car reviews, matched direct comparisons, test drives reports, loans and insurance guides et al. Something else that caught my attention was this blog which seems to have a very credible look & feel. According to Mohit Dubey, Carwale’s CEO, Carwale has the most traffic amongst all the Indian automotive sites and is ranked amongst the top 100 Indian websites by traffic (Alexa).
Something worth knowing is that Carwale has developed a MiniERP sofware and distributed it free to various car dealers. This MiniERP software helps dealers manage their operations. In return, Carwale gets an access to their inventory of new and used cars and the car buying/selling prices, which is posted automatically on Carwale. This sounds quite a remarkable approach and something that must have involved a fair bit of software skills besides the negotiation skills required in convincing dealers to adopt it. This dealer data along with the consumer classifieds has helped Carwale create a dynamic/updated used car valuation guide. Carwale feels that that this database has the potential to emerge as the Used car blue book for Indian car market.
In terms of the website itself, Carwale could consider improving the site’s usability and rationalizing some of the textual clutter.
On a different note, this is also another example of the vertical fragmentation of the online classifieds market into constituent areas- jobs, matrimonials, automobiles etc. One factor that is actually helping this continuing fragmentation is the absence of a good alternative in the online classifieds space, which has a slew of mediocre options (Craigslist clones) and no default choice.
Achal Jain on Jan 8, 2007
Great Site! I never new such good stuff could exist on net. I must thank the team involved in developing the great portal.
I tried to go through the car valuation and find it very useful. Though i sold off my car at a higher price than what was suggested by Carwale.com, but i was at least aware what price i should be asking!
Thx guys.
Neelesh Nishant (neelzs) on Jan 8, 2007
Well i went through carwale.com.Its a great site in the sense that its so simple.And i guess that is what is required.
I mean its features which allows auser to select a particular car depending on his budget and all is just gr8.
I htink this is the kind of approach we require in Indian market.
There are many players but the one who will keep on innovating,who will adapt to the changing market need,gauge the future will survive.
Best of luck Carwale.com
Sukhmana on Jan 9, 2007
Whats with the name…….Carwale? Very bhaiyaish name for a auto site. Its like subziwale, dudhwale, bhelpuriwale
Mohit Dubey on Jan 9, 2007
Amit, Thanks for this post.
Achal, we have now updated our valuation guide to include mileage and mfg month-year of car. Hope you’ll find it more accurate next time.
Visitors feedback is critical to us and we have developed most of the products & tools in line with consumer response on portal. We’ll appreciate any suggestions to better our offerings.
Mohit Dubey
CEO & Co-founder, Carwale.com
Ashish on Jan 11, 2007
After the funding they have got, no doubt they have improved the site. But the only challenge is how do they plan to attract dealers who are so ignorant in using internet.
Indimoto.com
waqar azmi on Jan 11, 2007
the revenue model seems interesting
waqar azmi on Jan 11, 2007
i m sure it will work
regards
http://www.indbay.com
Vishesh Bajaj on Jan 11, 2007
Two big challenges for carwale are:
1. Lack of personal experience with the automobile
2. Reliability of their car value algorithm (There are lot of factors which can be quantified for car value algorithm)
3. Keep user glued to the site (Car being high value product, customer would not be very frequently transacting for the product)
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Praveen on Mar 29, 2007
Carwale.com is a good site but the Home Page looks a bit cluttered with lot of google based ads etc…
but an impressive effort to bring in buyers and sellers.
But has a good compitition as http://www.indiaautomobile.com
hope these 2 can bring a lot of difference in the internet media of automobile segment…
Praveen
Sr.Manager Sales - IndiaAutomobile.com
Raghav on May 14, 2007
http://www.autonagar.com
http://www.autoindia.com
http://www.automartindia.com
http://www.bharatautomobiles.com
Carwale
cartradeindia
may be in coming days there will be auto site starting with every alphabet
Kiran on May 23, 2007
MiniERP…Thats really GREAT SOFTWARE. Mohit Dubey really understands the meaning of ERP. Best of luck
Shreedhar on Jun 30, 2007
carwale is definitely showing good promise in offering convenience to the potential indian car buyer. Great interface and varied tools.
But where carwale is losing is on content. Sheer quality of content. Everything looks like an advertisement of cars. Compare this to http://www.team-bhp.com which is entirely user-generated-content and builds a higher-than-expected level of trust, clarity and authenticity when it comes to auto related information.
Raghav on Jul 2, 2007
team-bhp, a car portal? C’mon!
What I feel about team-bhp is: It’s a forum where there are many enthusiasts (mostly rich) who want Indian buyers to buy Baleno, OHC VTEC or a Palio. Every discussion starts with these keywords and ends at them only. Every long discussion is nothing but a non-sense debate which is closed by moderator finally. All discussions start with rumours.
If one has enough time to kill, go visit team-bhp.
flqujocndn on Jul 3, 2007
Hello! Good Site! Thanks you! tbwtbunjkfiqa
Praveen on Aug 20, 2007
ERP??? Hello Mohit Dubey…Don’t just blabber. Do you know the meaning of ERP? ERP’s built over 25 years with 1000’s software developers…Just keep in mind that people are smarter nowaday. also you valuation system really crap. Anyone can use a system which does depreciation calculation… So nexttime please keep it in mind that people around you are smarter than YOU!
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Dheeraj on Mar 24, 2008
On carwale you have to fill your mobile no. detail….sometime you got spam call that’s discourage me…..
Recently i have got this interest of doing research on the various car models available in the market and gathering information on various car site. Indian car market doesn’t have much of an online presence as far as i know.
Few days ago ,i came across a site http://www.cardekho.com ,Here i got all the information about the new cars and latest upcoming cars of various companies that set to rule the roost on Indian road .You can select the company brand and it will give you a list of car models and its variants available and their show room prices that helps consumer to differentiate and select a new car .
amit on Apr 3, 2008
There are tons of sites that have cropped up now in auto segment in India.. I think lots of them are pretty cool.. I saw this note from Dheeraj and decided to see this new one i have not seen before.. talking about CarDekho .. Its the latest of the block i think. When i compare it to other giants already there they have done a good job given their existence of just a few days.. There dealer information is the most complete across any car site i saw. The best part was NO ADS on it and they dont ask for any personal information for showing the dealer data that all other idiots ask for.
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