Few people know that BidRivals, a global online auction service where you can buy brand new products at a fraction of the retail cost, is based in Malta.
Founded in 2009 – in an empty room in the flat of one of the founding members – the company’s first auction was a Nintendo Wii which sold for just €3.60. Since then BidRivals has become one the leading global penny auction sites. Today it has more than one million registered users, over 400,000 visitors a day, and its customers range from the young to the elderly, celebrities and the average consumer who wants to save money when he or she purchases an item.
Christoffer Haggblom, the company’s calm Finnish CEO, explains that BidRivals is an online auction site where people purchase bids which they place in auctions.
“If you win the auction you usually get a 90 per cent discount and if you don’t win you can use the bids that you used in the auction as a discount to buy the product at the same price as a high street retail store.
“Each time someone places a bid, which costs €0.50, the auction price increases by €0.01. For example if you want to buy a computer you might have bought bids for €100, the result of 200 bids, and if you win the auction (if you are the last one bidding), you will usually save up to 90 per cent. If you don’t win, the €100 that you placed in bids can go towards buying the product at the normal retail price,” he explains.
Mr Haggblom says the company only sells brand new products which have the same warranties and packaging as at any high street retail store, as BidRivals works with well known suppliers around the world such as amazon.com
“It is a new way of shopping where you have the possibility of getting your product at a much cheaper price. If you don’t manage to get it at a cheaper price you can buy it at the same price as at a high street retail store.”
BidRivals is currently active in all EU countries, the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India and Brazil, and its auctions are held 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Based in a flat in Sliema, the company co-ordinates with its suppliers in the markets it operates in for the products to be delivered.
Mr Haggblom explains the origins of the company: “I am the founder and CEO of an investment company in Sweden called Rite Ventures, and we invest in internet related companies. We set up this business in Malta together with other investors in 2009. This is not a gambling company so we did not need a gambling licence.
“We choose Malta over Stockholm, London and Berlin. Malta was a very good choice because the iGaming industry has been here for a while and we feel there is a lot of competence here in areas such as marketing, finance and customer support. The majority of our 45 employees are Maltese.
“In the other countries there are many companies that deal in e-commerce so the competition for talent is much harder. We have grown rapidly in Malta and we have employed 30 people since September – we are very happy with all our employees. In London, Stockholm or Berlin it would take up to one year to employ so many people because the competition for talent is so intense.”
He adds that a lower cost level (for example rent), a competitive tax system and a lot of good talent made Malta attractive for BidRivals to set up base here.
The product range sold by BidRivals is mainly the high- end of the home electronics market and the company gets to know of new products on the market either through its customers, its marketing team or its sourcing team.
“We are constantly trying to find new areas that are exciting for our customers such as sport goods or fashion wear. Our range could potentially include anything but our main product group is high-end home electronics such as Apple products, flat screen televisions and digital cameras. However, if our customers want to have designer bags, then we sell them.
“We interact a lot with our customers through social media such as Facebook and Twitter which is how we know exactly what they would like to buy. We also conduct market research and exchange emails with our customers,” he says.
Mr Haggblom says that in 2010 BidRivals had a turnover of over €13million and this year the company is aiming at doubling that, adding that he is always looking out for good people in various fields such as customer support, marketing and finance.
He is very optimistic about the future and the company’s potential for further growth.
“We believe that we can reach €100 million within three to four years. We launched our site on July 1, 2009 so our growth has been quite rapid. We intend to grow the company and make it the number one global player in this segment.
“We believe this niche will be huge in a few years and we want to be the biggest player in both turnover and profit. We want to be the Facebook of penny auctions, meaning a global brand setting the standard for our industry and we believe Malta is a good place from where to reach our goal.”
Mr Haggblom says companies offering an online auction service require a huge amount of traffic and liquidity.
“A number of small sites offering such a service have shut down. With 400,000 visitors every day I would say we are among the top three in the world, and the other two companies are based in the US, but unlike us, they only handle the US market.”