CompareHero helps consumers see the complete picture

KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 13, 2014): Compargo Malaysia Sdn Bhd, the operator of CompareHero.my, a Malaysian financial products comparison portal, sees big opportunity and demand for product comparison insights thanks to increasing internet penetration and financial services in the country.
"We see a lot of demand in Malaysia, similar to other countries, for information regarding personal financing. We also see many role models abroad providing these insights actively and it doesn't exist here. So it's a great opportunity to get in the market with a business model that's been proven to be successful," managing director Floyd Sijmons (pix) told SunBiz in an interview recently.
Sijmons, 26, said when he first came to Malaysia on a permanent basis, he had to get insurance, credit card and loans but information was not readily at hand.
"It's difficult to tell what makes sense for me and what meets my needs. I have to go through terms and conditions and fine prints. Here, CompareHero is trying to provide that solution. We help people to save time, money and get insights into making decisions regarding personal financing."
The team behind CompareHero previously built companies such as Zalora, Lazada and Groupon, and the success of these three stands testament to their ability to conquer the domestic market online.
Before joining CompareHero, Sijmons was an international executive at Groupon, in charge of all deal quality teams internationally and the strategic revenue management teams in the Europe, Middle East and Asia region. In addition to this, he also functioned as interim CEO for Groupon Poland, head of local sales for South Africa and Turkey, as well as head of sales ops for Russia.
"Here, people are using social media, as well as looking for information online, which means this is a great space to build this online business," reinforced Sijmons, adding that the company is building capability in terms of getting in-house experts whom visitors can call for free advice.
As it reaches a market of people who have not made a decision yet, part of what the company does is to help people make their decisions according to what is best for them.
"We communicate this to service providers and make sure they can follow up faster and better than any other methods and platform. We make sure each individual gets help and, by that point, the bank or insurance companies will give us a reward for that customer," Sijmons said, explaining that this is a "limited reward" to merely cover costs and substantiate its investments.
In the insurance industry, for example, Sijmons said an insurance agent can only be affiliated with maximum two general insurance companies or one life insurance company. Thus, most of them are likely to promote a product that is more profitable, meaning that it will only come from one (insurance) company in almost all situations. As a result, it may not be the best product for consumers.
"We affiliate with all (insurance companies) and we have ex-agents and experts in-house who are not biased and not incentivised by one company to help people get what is best for them. We provide a place when you can compare all products for what they are and select the one best for you, completely independently and for free," he said.
Currently, CompareHero compares information on credit cards, personal loans, home loans, broadband plans, phone plans, and insurance consisting medical, personal accident, travel and motor insurance. It receives about 5,000 hits a day and its major traffic generator is credit cards and broadband plans.
Sijmons said once it becomes a one-stop shop where people can compare information independently for free, there will be more offerings on the website, with plans to go into more verticals, such as car loans, student loans, even gold investments.
Compared with the other players in the market, he said, CompareHero has gone into providing insights in verticals that others do not, such as broadband and telco plans, where assistance is frequently needed.
"We have a major focus on personalised help and we have our in-house experts. We want to have personal conversations with people and going in depth in terms of what they're actually looking for."
He said CompareHero is not solely a price comparison website but a product or information comparison website, like a search engine in many ways.
"We compare the most important factors and people can make their own decisions based on that. Just looking at website trends, we see that people are interested in a lot of things beyond just price.
"Because these products are so detailed in many aspects and factors, there are so many things to compare. It depends on the individual what they want to prioritise and we try to unearth what they want and help them get what serve their needs best."
CompareHero has 80 partnerships with local service providers currently, which allows the product comparison website to obtain the latest product information from companies for its evaluation.
Malaysia is the first market that CompareHero launched. Since then, it has also ventured into Hong Kong (under the name MoneyGuru) and the Philippines (MoneyMax).
"Malaysia is most important because it is the place to be in terms of growth, both economically and in terms of Internet penetration. We're also looking into Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore and Taiwan in 2014," said Sijmons.