By Mei Kuan
Founded in 2016, iMotorbike is the number one motorcycle marketplace in Malaysia and also the only one available. As a leader in building a community around motorbikes, the iMotorbike platform serves manufacturers, dealers, service providers, and consumers with services for market research, motorbike financing and insurance, and a customer to customer market where end users can buy and sell used motorbike parts and accessories.
To learn more, Ipoh Echo had an exclusive one-on-one with Gil Carmo, Founder and CEO of iMotorbike.
“iMotorbike was born from my experience living in Vietnam, when I needed to find a motorcycle online but was unable to find any platform that enabled me to do so. That same moment, I went on to study the market of motorcycles platforms across the region to understand if the problem was limited to Vietnam, or occurred in all other countries too — I came to realise it was a regional pain. I went on to study the transactions number per annum, per country in terms of new and used motorcycles and that’s when I realised that we had an untapped blue ocean of motorcycle users and sellers digitally underserved, who were just waiting for a business like ours to support them,” Gil explained.
To support its wide range of services, iMotorbike has partnered with established brands including Berjaya Sompo, Direct Lending and Zurich. iMotorbike is also a holder of the MSC Status Tier 1, which gives them a competitive advantage to further their work for the motorcycle industry.
“We do not hold any physical shop. We work closely with all our dealer and brand partners to support the online expansion of their businesses and to reach more consumers – that is our core mission. We basically help all ecosystem players to connect with each other, facilitating easy transactions between them. Our platform provides a space for them to reach out to each other — they then finalise the transaction offline, usually at the seller’s shop, if they are a dealer, or in a safe, mutually-agreed-on location,” he highlighted.
According to him, the rising popularity of motorbikes in Malaysia especially Perak is inevitable. “Motorcycles are an ultra-convenient way of moving around, especially in this fantastic weather that Malaysia has. You can literally get to any place with a breeze in your face, avoiding traffic, spending way less on petrol, maintenance, road tax, insurance. And, it’s quite safe as long as you follow the road laws as you should. It is a great way for families to save more of their household budget as well,” he added.
Hailing from Lisbon in Portugal, Gil learnt about the impact of the internet when he was 12 and started to sell mobile phones on mIRC, an old form of chatting in an open digital community.
With previous experiences from Lazada and Shopback under his belt, the eCommerce veteran has always loved bikes besides being an absolute book-obsessed person.
“I became truly passionate about bikes when I lived in Vietnam and owned several. I am not a big fan of naming one favourite, as I truly enjoy any type of two-wheeler that I get to drive. Every single one of them brings different experiences, but if I had to choose one, it would be the Husqvarna 701 Supermoto,” he shared.
“Our roadmap of new coming products and features is endless. We are very excited with how Malaysia has been embracing the company and are impressed by the enthusiasm they have for what we have been building here. We are always welcoming of any comments that support us to grow and improve what we do on a daily basis,” Gil enthused.
For more updates, readers can swing by the iMotorbike’s website (imotorbike.my) and Facebook page (imotorbike).
