Carousell launches advertising offering

Singapore-headquartered Carousell Group has launched a marketing platform that will enable brands to buy advertising across its handful of online marketplaces.

The platform, Carousell Media Group, will act as a single entry point for brands looking to purchase ads across Carousell, Mudah.my, Cho Tot and OneKyat. The marketplaces operate within Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Vietnam), Hong Kong and Taiwan.

The company claims over 70% of its user base is aged between 20 to 35, an attractive demographic for brands. Manulife, one of the early adopters of the platform, used it to target millenials for its 'Life Goes On' campaign in Singapore.

Carousell Media Group will be headed by JJ Eastwood, who has been leading Carousell's advertising and merchant services divisions for 18 months.

Eastwood joined Carousell from Japanese ecommerce platform Rakuten, where he ran the advertising business. Prior to this, he was CEO of HuffPost Australia, managing director of Sizmek (formerly Rocket Fuel), and led the advertising business at Ebay Australia, where he launched Australia's largest private programmatic marketplace at the time.

Beyond the usual audience segmentation and targeting solutions, Eastwood said Carousell is on a mission to build a more "socially responsible, transparent and brand-safe advertising platform". 

It facilitated Carousell's Covid-19 initiative to give away US$2 million in advertising inventory to non-profit organisations including Singapore Red Cross, Give.Asia, Free Food for All in Singapore, Parents Without Partners in Malaysia, Habitat For Humanity in Hong Kong and Caritas Manila in the Philippines to help the communities impacted by COVID-19.

The platform is open to most advertisers besides those that directly compete with Carousell, including classifieds platforms like Gumtree and Ebay, plus competitors in the cars, properties, jobs and services verticals. Meanwhile, ads that fall under black magic and astrology, cosmetic procedures and body modification, religion and dating services are prohibited.