Online used car platform Carro is making a strategic investment into Driven Communications, which comprises a portfolio of websites including paultan.org, carbase.my and oto.my.
The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The investment is expected to be completed within two months.
Paultan.org is an automotive review and news vertical content platform, while carbase.my and oto.my are buyer’s guide and used car classifieds respectively.
As the largest independent automotive review website in Malaysia, paultan.org draws monthly active visits of up to six million traffic organically, regularly ranking as the top most visited automotive website nationwide.
Driven Communications co-CEOs Paul Tan and Harvinder Singh will continue to helm the business and the board of directors will remain unchanged. The company will also continue to have complete autonomy over its editorial direction and decisions.
The investment is a proactive move to promote openness and independence, Carro says in a statement. It claims that recent acquisitions of automotive classifieds and sites by fellow industry players have resulted in multiple dealers and platforms being blocked, stifling healthy competition and customer access across the region.
“We are a believer that classifieds and other services under Driven Communications should continue to be made available to their existing clientele, as well as our customers, dealers and competitors — a move we hope all classifieds emulate, given the Malaysian government initiative to break down monopolies and anti-competitive behaviour,” says Carro co-founder and CEO Aaron Tan.
“We also strongly support its role to freely shape industry awareness and disseminate relevant information that will benefit end-customers and the industry, underpinned by facts and professional journalism. We aim to maintain a non-controlling stake and welcome other industry participants to jointly invest and support Driven Communications continued growth,” he adds.
