Home-Grown Parking App Is Set To Make Malaysia Proud

By Niam Seet Wei KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 27 (Bernama) -- August is Merdeka (Independence) month in Malaysia. To show their patriotism, Malaysians may affix the Jalur Gemilang (Malaysian Flag) on their vehicles, attend patriotic activities such as National Day parade on Aug 31, or buy “Buatan Malaysia” (made in Malaysia) products to support local businesses. Young Malaysian entrepreneur and ParkEasy chief executive officer Warren Chan, 30, chose to show his love for the country in his very unique way, namely by creating an online solution, or perhaps, a game-changer, to “disrupt” the old-school way of finding a parking space. It would help ease Malaysia’s long-standing traffic problem as studies have found that 30 per cent of traffic congestion is caused by people cruising around, looking for parking space. PARKING FRUSTRATION For Chan, it all started with a common “frustration" story, when he missed out a big part of a movie after failing to find parking space at a shopping mall, despite having relentlessly searched for quite some time. "I bought the movie ticket in advance online, but still missed a big part of the movie, due to the parking problem," he told Bernama. Thanks to that "unfortunate" incident, Chan was prompted to find a solution, whereby people can now book their parking spaces in advance and it is just as easy as booking a movie ticket online. When the opportunity arouse in 2014, Chan met two other like-minded youths and co-founded Parkeasy, a parking reservations mobile application (app). PARKEASY, THE FIRST OF ITS KIND PARKING RESERVATIONS APP As he explained, making a car park reservation is not something new globally, but the way Parkeasy does it is by using a mobile app based on a bluetooth-powered indoor navigation system, and this is in itself, an unprecedented innovation. “In Malaysia, we are the first reserve parking provider, while globally, we are the first to undertake it, the way we do," he said. Explaining the functions of the app, Chan said after downloading the app, users would be guided by an indoor navigation system straight to their reserved parking bays. They will then see their licence plate number displayed on a light-emitting diode (LED) signboard placed on top of the parking bay. According to the Parkeasy website, just three simple steps will lead the driver to the reserved parking bay via the app, with the first step being selecting a location and reserving a bay on it. Then, arrive within an hour and navigate to the designated bay, and thirdly, unlock the remote-controlled barrier of the parking bay via the mobile app and take the spot. “Parkeasy is now operating in specified zones, and people will become familiar and know where to park, after they go there once,” said Chan. CHALLENGES AT THE BEGINNING OF THE INNOVATION ROAD Little do people know that “Self Valet” was the original name that Chan and the two other co-founders wanted to give their brainchild. “Our focus was to serve customers who did not want to pay as much as that for a valet, but still wanted that same level of convenience,” he said. Going back to 2014, he explained that the LED signboards were placed above designated bays showing the licence plate numbers of users who had booked through the app. However, he said this posed a problem then, as drivers found it difficult to see the numbers on the signboards due to the viewing space from their cars. “The other thing was, no one cared about the car number plate when a physical, vacant parking bay was right in front of them,” he added. EVOLUTION GOES ON To further improve the user experience, Chan said the app underwent a series of changes, including using the parking guidance system, whereby a light would turn red if the parking spot was taken and green signalled it was free. “But, this too did not work as expected, due to a signal delay in the central parking system, which could be as long as 15 minutes. It clearly failed to provide the best experience sought for car users,” he said. He highlighted that the concept of pairing two drivers for a parking spot by emulating “Uber” was also tested. “This means a driver searching for a parking spot was paired with another leaving the area. “It did not work because of the difficulty in finding a (matching) parking bay at a shopping mall with so many there,” he said. Chan and his team typically pressed on for the best response and eventually came up with the idea of using remote-controlled parking barriers, and the first batch of 17 were deployed at Parkeasy’s reserved parking bays at the IOI City Mall in January 2017. “That was when we really started to see a jump in reservations,” he said. THE RISE OF PARKEASY Following this, Chan said Parkeasy managed to surpass 2,000 reservation-mark for the first time in just December 2018. It was a huge leap from less than 50 reservations for January 2017. To his surprise, Parkeasy gained traction among those who had babies or elderly persons in tow, rather than young adults like college students, who were initially targeted. "Our first focus was the parking section for cinema goers (due to the movie ticket incident) and located closest to the nearest entrance to the cinema at a mall. “We were targeting the young people at first, but found out later that young families with babies or the elderly were actually our main users, because they could park at the designated parking bays, which led straight to the travelators of a mall," Chan said. He even received a very encouraging review from a female user who described the experience of using the Parkeasy app as "heavenly" with her father being wheelchair bound. STARTUP JOURNEY Looking back at the journey, Chan admitted that money is always among the key challenges faced by most of the startups worldwide, and Parkeasy was no exception. Fortunately, with Malaysia's startup ecosystem rapidly maturing, the government played a vital role in helping the expansion of the technology firm. Sharing his experience in seeking financial assistance, he said PlaTCOM Ventures Sdn Bhd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Agensi Inovasi Malaysia (AIM) formed in collaboration with SME Corporation Malaysia, was the first government-linked company that funded Parkeasy. "Back then, when we were looking to pursue a patent for the parking system, the PlaTCOM staff not only offered us legal advice, but also encouraged us to apply for a grant from them. We received RM210,700 and it was the very first government-linked support received," Chan added. He said subsequently, Parkeasy also successfully secured additional funding from different public and private entities such as Kumpulan Modal Perdana Sdn Bhd, Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation Sdn Bhd, Cradle Fund Sdn Bhd, venture capital firms like 1337 Ventures and CMY Capital Sdn Bhd. "They certainly helped us to grow our business further," he said. DISRUPTING THE TRADITIONAL PARKING INDUSTRY To become more market savvy and cater to the better demand, Chan said the company ventured into the very important person (VIP) section. Parkeasy opened its first VIP parking section in August 2017, offering the same rate as for the premium parking at a shopping mall. "We received overwhelming requests from customers.But, we only have four VIP bays at the IOI City Mall now," he said. To “disrupt” the industry further, Parkeasy also introduced its first electric vehicle (EV) charging bay in December 2018. In June this year, the tech firm partnered the BMW Group Malaysia, Shell Malaysia and Sunway Group to provide 10 EV charging bays at Sunway Group's facilities in the Klang Valley, raising the number to 14 to date. Asked if Parkeasy would be a threat for the traditional premium parking or valet service in the future, Chan thinks otherwise. “No, I don’t think so.We are just giving drivers another choice, and are looking at a very different target segment,” he said. EXPANDING INTO SOUTHEAST ASIAN CITIES Five years down the road from its establishment, Chan said Parkeasy was currently managing over 100 parking bays, including the 14 EV charging bays in the Klang Valley area. As most services are only available at shopping malls and office buildings, he said the company planned to expand its services to hotels, hospitals and universities, starting from the Klang Valley, followed by the northern and southern parts of the country. “We do plan to expand further into the northern region of Malaysia and are currently in talks with those who have direct access to parking locally and regionally and these include developers, large car park operators, or property facility management companies. Moving forward, Chan is confident of broadening the company's services into Southeast Asian cities such as Jakarta, Manila, Bangkok and Singapore in five years time with the possibility of tapping the United States, Europe and China in the future. -- BERNAMA