Malaysia-based Digital investment firm, Frontier Digital Ventures, has expanded its presence into Myanmar with two investments in online automobile website, MyanmarCarsDB and online property website, iMyanmarhouse. No investment value were disclosed.
MyanmarCarsDB, established in January 2012, was the first online automobile marketplace to connect car buyers and sellers in Myanmar. Today it stands as the country’s leading automobile portal with more than 40,000+ cars listed, and registering the highest volume of consumer traffic to both its website and mobile application of any online automotive resource domestically. MyanamarCarsDB is the go-to source for car enthusiasts searching for car classifieds, local car market news, local auto tax information and auto directory services throughout Myanmar.
iMyanamarHouse is a leading Myanmar property portal. Launched in October 2013, the site currently has over 31,000 properties listed for sale or rent, and is the country’s highest trafficked website by consumers looking real estate and property information and news.
Shaun Di Gregorio, CEO and Co-founder of Frontier Digital Ventures commented: “Myanmar is the last untouched market in Asia. Frontier’s two investments in both the leading automotive site and leading property site, ideally position us as Myanmar’s market emerges. We are actively working with the management teams of both companies to accelerate their growth and extend their market leadership. Our achievements in Myanmar, following closely on our recent investments in the No 1 property and automobile sites in Pakistan, are a perfect example of our goal to be the leading operator of online classifieds businesses in Frontier markets worldwide. We have global ambitions and view our progress as a tremendous foundation for where we want to take Frontier Digital Ventures”
As former CEO of iProperty Group, a network of property portals, Di Gregorio spearheaded the transformation of iProperty Group from a small online business into one of the largest listed Internet companies in ASEAN, with a market capitalisation of US$600 million during his four year tenure. He was further instrumental in taking REA Group Ltd where he was previously General Manager, from a capitalization of US$25.5 million to US$720 million, whilst growing the business into a company with more than 300 staff and revenues exceeding AU$150 million annually.
With the largest untapped population in Southeast Asia, and skyrocketing Internet penetration and mobile phone adoption, Myanmar, dubbed “the next tiger economy”, is the world’s premier frontier market for digital opportunities. A true mobile-first market, the government recently announced it aims to make 80% of its 60 million people mobile phones users, as well as bring half the population online by 2016.
Norwegian telecom firm, Telenor registered 2 million users just two months after opening their first store in Rangoon in September this year. Qatar Telecom’s Ooredoo has also recorded millions of subscribers within months of launching in August 2014. According to Ooredoo’s projections, the company anticipates that Myanmar will be its second largest market outside of Indonesia.
