TripAdvisor & SAP vets help consumers find car deals with iSeeCars
By Taryn Plumb, Special to the Journal
Courtesy
Phong Ly was in the market for a used car. But soon enough, he found
himself ensnared in a "tedious" process: Searching numerous websites,
and for every car he was interested in, doing a good deal of math,
reading and questioning (was the asking price reasonable? Was the car
well-maintained?)
“I did find a car eventually,” he said, “but it took a lot of hard work.”
And he knew he wasn't alone in his frustrations. So he teamed up with Vineet Manohar, formerly a senior software engineer with TripAdvisor, and in 2008, the two founded iSeeCars, a site that aggregates more than 4 million used car listings from thousands of sites across the country.
“There are a lot of cars on a lot of different websites,” said Ly, who serves as CEO of the Woburn-based company, and previously worked as a senior director of corporate business development for SAP. “We're making it super easy for consumers to get the best deals.”
Visitors to the site enter their zip code, and the make and/or model of the car they're looking for. Results then rank local, available cars in order of best deals, and include pertinent details about the car and its mileage, market price, as well as dealer ratings. Users then have the option to contact the dealer through an automated email form.
As Ly explained, the company's proprietary algorithm assigns cars scores based on analysis of their condition and history, price, seller, and negotiability. Listings come from dealers and sites big and small, he said: Anywhere from 10-car lots to Cars.com, CarMax, AutoNation and Autobytel.
iSeeCars is also taking five years worth of data generated by millions of transactions to provide what Ly called “nuggets” of insight to help both buyers and sellers. For instance, it recently found, by analyzing the average market prices of 20 million cars for sale over the past year, that consumers will find basically the same deal at a used car dealer as at a new car dealer. (The perception has typically been that used dealers had better prices.)
“We provide something that's very unique. We're breaking things down into manageable pieces,” said Ly. People can tend to be “intimidated” by the car-buying process, but “we're educating consumers about buying used cars, what they ought to look for.”
With eight employees, iSeeCars was self-funded as a startup, and is now profitable, Ly said. Revenues are derived from advertising and lead generation from dealers and sites it partners or works with – that is, if a user visits the site, finds a car they like, and contacts the dealer through the site, iSeeCars receives a payment.
Although the company doesn't disclose its revenue or number of visitors, Ly did say that it has been doubling its growth every year, and that, over the last 12 months, 30 million cars have been listed on the site.
Looking ahead, he said the company will continue to improve its algorithm, and is also looking to double its headcount over the next year.
And he expects interest in iSeeCars to only grow, pointing to the statistic that 40 million used cars are sold every year, compared to 15 million new cars.
“It's a huge market,” he said. “Lots of people want to find a good deal.”
Original story link.
“I did find a car eventually,” he said, “but it took a lot of hard work.”
And he knew he wasn't alone in his frustrations. So he teamed up with Vineet Manohar, formerly a senior software engineer with TripAdvisor, and in 2008, the two founded iSeeCars, a site that aggregates more than 4 million used car listings from thousands of sites across the country.
“There are a lot of cars on a lot of different websites,” said Ly, who serves as CEO of the Woburn-based company, and previously worked as a senior director of corporate business development for SAP. “We're making it super easy for consumers to get the best deals.”
Visitors to the site enter their zip code, and the make and/or model of the car they're looking for. Results then rank local, available cars in order of best deals, and include pertinent details about the car and its mileage, market price, as well as dealer ratings. Users then have the option to contact the dealer through an automated email form.
As Ly explained, the company's proprietary algorithm assigns cars scores based on analysis of their condition and history, price, seller, and negotiability. Listings come from dealers and sites big and small, he said: Anywhere from 10-car lots to Cars.com, CarMax, AutoNation and Autobytel.
iSeeCars is also taking five years worth of data generated by millions of transactions to provide what Ly called “nuggets” of insight to help both buyers and sellers. For instance, it recently found, by analyzing the average market prices of 20 million cars for sale over the past year, that consumers will find basically the same deal at a used car dealer as at a new car dealer. (The perception has typically been that used dealers had better prices.)
“We provide something that's very unique. We're breaking things down into manageable pieces,” said Ly. People can tend to be “intimidated” by the car-buying process, but “we're educating consumers about buying used cars, what they ought to look for.”
With eight employees, iSeeCars was self-funded as a startup, and is now profitable, Ly said. Revenues are derived from advertising and lead generation from dealers and sites it partners or works with – that is, if a user visits the site, finds a car they like, and contacts the dealer through the site, iSeeCars receives a payment.
Although the company doesn't disclose its revenue or number of visitors, Ly did say that it has been doubling its growth every year, and that, over the last 12 months, 30 million cars have been listed on the site.
Looking ahead, he said the company will continue to improve its algorithm, and is also looking to double its headcount over the next year.
And he expects interest in iSeeCars to only grow, pointing to the statistic that 40 million used cars are sold every year, compared to 15 million new cars.
“It's a huge market,” he said. “Lots of people want to find a good deal.”
Original story link.
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