CARI INTERNET
BACKGROUND
This investment opportunity allows an investor to take an equity position in Cari and an indirect position in NMICEE, the soon to be launched e-marketplace for products NOT made in China.
Cari.com.my (owned and operated by Cari Internet Sdn Bhd) was established in 1996 and is amongst Malaysia's Top 20 most visited website with more then 30,000,000 page views and 3,500,000 unique visitors a month and thereof, is a formidable opinion influencer. Cari is acknowledged by Malaysia Book of Records as the first Malay search engine.
Cari has gone through various change phases from the original search engine to forums to its position today as a leading news media company predicated on the 'wemedia' format where freelance journalists are certified and allowed to post edited articles and are paid for popularity of their articles by readership.
The durability of Cari, ably led by her founder, Liew Chew Keat, is demonstrated by Cari's status as the pioneer' of the internet industry in Malaysia.24 years old in 2020,which is an eternity in the internet age, Cari has survived all the challenges of the industry and emerged unscathed from the dotcom crash of 2008-2010.
A COLOURFUL PAST AND NOW ....A BRIGHT FUTURE
Cari has now identified a niche project that it intends to launch to capitalise on an unique business opportunity in a joint venture with certain project promoters. NMICEE.com is an e-marketplace for products NOT Made In China. The Covid-19 pandemic has demonstrated the tremendous growth potential of online shopping. The other issue is the strained US-China relationship which is beyond repair and will define the new normal.
NMICEE is positioned to take advantage of this situation where there is a huge niche market of people who do not wish to buy products made in China; for whatever their reasons.
The funds to be raised on this platform will be used as follows:-
1) one-third (1/3) of the funds raised shall be used for the continuation of the WeMedia strategy of empowering ordinary people with "uncorporatised" news and to cement Cari's position as the undisputed WeMedia leader.
2) two-thirds (2/3) of the funds shall be used to venture into an online e-commerce project called NMICEE. In summary, NMICEE is an e-marketplace for products NOT Made In China and targeted at consumers in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand (the so-called 5-eyes) as well as the European Union countries.
The Company is raising between RM300,000 to RM3,000,000
THE NEW NORMAL. THE NEXT NORMAL - EFFECTS & SOLUTIONS
The world today faces a New Normal. Flexible working hours, home working, enforced entrepreneurship, increased adoption of online shopping et cetera. And the big elephant in the room is the strained US-China relations which is redefining the global economy and political alignments.
Factories are busy relocating out of China as a result of sustained political pressure on the multi national companies to realign their supply chain. A big upheaval is under way. For the end user consumer products, the Asian countries outside China are good replacements as they already supply competitively priced goods.
NMICEE.com is to provide an online shopping alternative. A recent PEW Survey showed that @63% of Americans do not trust China! Its bipartisan; including both Republicans and Democrats. The internet is full of 'noise' about this China sentiment.
NMICEE.com is proof that the world has alternatives. Products sourced from each country will be competitive in terms of quality and price. And one can shop at ease. Products will be noted as "Substantially NOT made in China >75%, Significantly NOT made in China >50% or Partially NOT made in China >25%. While NMICEE.com will not be a verification company, suppliers found to be abusing these categories classification will be de-listed. There will be a team of Verifiers guided also by experts to sniff out dishonest misrepresentations. In fact, we expect some China customers looking for baby milk products NOT made in China after all the issues raised on fake milk products produced in China!!
Online shopping is the future. Amazon and Alibaba shares are all hitting new highs in this pandemic lockdown and yet online shopping is less then 10% of total retail sales signifying much room for accelerated growth in the near future. A leading online shopping company registers more then 200,000 transactions a day and thats for the Malaysian market. NMICEE.com represents an opportunity for a global niche market that is both very significant in size and purchasing power; and even more so compared to the niche Malaysian market.
Cari.com.my's strategy of going WeMedia since 2018 had been proving successful until it was derailed by the Covid-19 pandemic. Advertisment revenue rates fell and payment to our citizen journalist also fell and some left and the effects snowballed. But the company is well positioned to pick up where it left off and is confident that things would be looking up as we tweak the business model.
Cari.com.my is a household name and its numbers of visitors is there for all to see. Cari is acknowledged as a credible newsource and is recognised and invited by media from many countries in the Asian region like China, Japan, South Korea and Thailand to report on their national news. Cari has 1,300 reporters signed up to date (Malay=950 and Chinese=350) with approximately 100 monthly active WeMedia reporters. 30-50 Malay articles are published daily with 15-30 Chinese articles published daily.
With this round of funding, Cari intends to continue to add to its repertoire of Malay and Chinese language reporters and also to start an English language section. Cari is also setting up a video broadcasting team and this will also diversify its ad revenue sources. The target is to have 10,000 reporters in Malaysia and 1,000,000 for Asia.
There will continue to be investment in the infrastructure necessary to make this WeMedia strategy an overwhelming success. Software, hardware, security, reporting and data gathering as well as data analysis are all crucial to this business. And this has been accumulated by Cari over the past 24 years of its existence. Cari has been substantially self funded and believes it is time to bring to the fore the fruits of its labour and seek public funding for the next course of its journey which promises to be exciting and financially rewarding.
