Loogic English

After the review of classifieds and flash game sites, I think it would be worth it to devote some time to look at the situation of the private shopping clubs or online outlets that are proliferating on the internet.

Now we can say that ecommerce is functioning well in Spain and I think that, to a great extent, it is because of the success of these kinds of sites that have become an obsession with a lot of people (waking up at 7 in the morning to enter a promotion of Privalia is something not very normal).

No surprise that this success is not only a phenomenon in Spain. In France, for example, there’s a real rage and they have Vente Privee as the best example of this business. This company has made a strong arrival in the Spanish market and already accounts for a few million clients all over Europe. On a European level, there’s another company, Private Outlet with versions for five countries.

So that’s the panorama of the Online Outlets in Spain and Latin America. I have found 10 projects of this kind, 9 developed in Spain and one in Argentina. Of the 10 projects, there are 3 (Privalia, BuyVip and Vipventa) that have received investment and compete directly with each other. There are two others that are beginning to stand out (DreiVip and Ofertix) and another 5 that are in their initial stages. Let’s take a further look at each one of them:

The leaders:

Privalia

Founders: Lucas Carné, José Manuel Villanueva and Bruno Coffre
Founded: 2006
Investors: Luis Martín, La Caixa and Nauta Capital
Funding: around 7 million euros
Access: does not require invitation
Headquarters: Barcelona (Spain)

Buyvip

Founder: Gustavo García
Founded: 2006
Investors: DAD, 3i, MCI, Michael Kleindl, Bertelsmann, Grupo Intercom
Funding: around 17.5 million euros
Access: invitation required
Headquarters: Madrid (Spain), Milan (Italy), Frankfurt (Germany)

Vipventa

Founder: David Ducos
Founded: 2006
Investors: Mobius
Funding: 2.75 million euros
Access: invitation required
Headquarters: Madrid (Spain)
Notes: the blog of Sonia

The aspirants:

Dreivip

Founder: Margarita Olivares
Founded: 2006
Investors: unknown
Funding: unknown
Headquarters: Badalona (Spain)

Ofertix

Founder: Antonio Alcantara
Founded: 2007
Investors: unknown
Funding: unknown
Headquarters: Barcelona (Spain)
Notes: Revelation Web Yahoo 2007

The recent arrivals: Geelbe (Argentina), Glamounity, Sinempujar, Compralia and Vipcompras

Do these newcomers have any possibilities to compete with the other five companies that enjoy a huge competitive advantage and with other companies that have already arrived from other parts of Europe?

As far as the competition between the three big ones (Privalia, Buyvip and Vipventa) with the figures of investments and business that they manage, the leadership is going to be closely related with the creation of a brand, with obtaining the best products at the best prices and with offering the best customer service possible.

An idea for these companies looking to increase their user base: can you imagine if one of these companies reaches an agreement with Tuenti to publish their campaigns of branded clothes in form of an event inside the preferred social network for young people?

 

The race between the private shopping clubs is starting to become frantic, not only in traffic but also in investment figures. A few days ago we were analyzing the figures of VipVenta and came to know of an investment of 10 million in BuyVip. And now comes the news of a new investment in Privalia.

This third round of investment participated by Nauta Capital is of 4 million euros, which brings the total amount of investment in the company to 7 million euros.

To this increase in capital, the original investors La Caixa and Luis Martín have also participated.

With these figures of investment, existing competition and growth figures, I understand that it shouldn’t be long before we see consolidations in the sector that is without doubt turning into one of the main protagonists of the internet in the last two or three years.

Seen in OjoInternet.

I think that the first time I heard of Luis Martín Cabiedes was in the blog of Carlos Blanco a few months back. Since then, Luis Martín Cabiedes has turned into a reference for all of us who are involved in the internet business, especially for the investors and the venture capital scene.

In person I didn’t meet him until he came to Iniciador of the month of December. He seemed to me a simple person who doesn’t like to stand out, but one who knows how to be surrounded by good contacts around him.

If we google Luis Martín Cabiedes, the first result that appears is that he was the President of Baquia, something that shows his great involvement in internet projects, but the thing he is most well-known for in the business world is for being the Co-President of Europa Press and now continues to be a stakeholder and advisor of this group of communications.

But for us what stands out the most is the great activity that he is carrying out in the last few months as a business angel, above all for having invested in projects of which we talk with frequency over here, some of which are: privalia.com, sclipo.com, bubok.com, trovit.com and nvivo.es.

About the investments realized, I cannot say if they will go on to be very profitable for him, but I do believe that he has made a very intelligent selection of projects mainly for the diversification of themes and models. Pay close attention as I believe it’s worth it to analyze the investments made:

Privalia: e-commerce model, fashion theme. I understand it’s a project that is already generating profits making the investment a profitable one from the beginning.
Sclipo: web 2.0 model, video theme, still not generating profits but could have a great potential for a sale or for further rounds of financing.
Bubok: e-commerce model, editorial theme, still hasn’t been launched but could have a growth and profitability sustained for a long term.
Trovit: search model, classifieds theme, already generating profits and could go on to be very profitable on its own through contextual advertising.
Nvivo: social network model, music theme, with a strong growth in number of users and very interesting with respect to further rounds of financing.

About the profitability of the investments of a business angel, one should think that there are many ways of obtaining it, the most basic being that the project invested makes profits, through sale to another company, and also one in which investors keep very much in mind an exit in a second round of financing obtaining important benefits.

Read the original article in Spanish.