Dubai: Plugging a perceived gap in the market is always a good place for a start-up to be in. This is what the promoters of Souqalmal.com hope to achieve through their portal offering a comparison of rates and services within the local financial services industry.
"Previously, people in the UAE typically would choose a product because they are currently a customer of that particular bank or they were approached by a sales person," said Waleed Isaac, one of the partners behind the new portal.
"There was no opportunity for consumers to search and compare credit cards, loans, mortgages and bank accounts in one place before making a decision."
As far as the concept and execution is concerned, the promoters did not have to reinvent the wheel significantly. Similar comparison portals already operate in the UK — moneysupermarket.co.uk — the US and elsewhere.
Generating revenue
Somebody who gets on to the Soualmal site will get search results in a random order. If the user so desires, the results can be further finetuned on the basis of ratings, the rates charged and the rewards.
"We started the website as a pure information site with no revenue generation in June to make sure we can test the appetite for the concept with both UAE consumers and the banks, and iron out any start up difficulties," said Isaac.
"We have now started commercialising the site and will start generating revenues by year-end. We project the portal to be profitable somewhere by mid-2012."
As for the income generation, the portal hopes to tap the very banks that will figure in its listings for future adverts. Fees generated by references could also form an additional stream. According to the promoter, the initial response from banks has been ‘enthusiastic'.
"Banks are keen as it is probably the most targeted way of reaching potential customers actively looking for financial products," said Isaac. "In addition to typical advertising, users can opt to be contacted by the banks on specific products of their choice."
The funding to date has been carried through promoter funds, with Isaac adding this was the quickest way to bring the concept to commercial reality.
Coming soon
Promoters hope the Souqalmal.com site will soon go viral.
"The main challenge for us is to keep our users engaged in the portal and actively promote it to their family, friends and colleagues," said Waleed Isaac. "We are trying to achieve this by providing users with email updates and making sure the content is continuously enriched."
