Multiply.com has announced it will be shutting down on May 6 and stop all business operations by May 31.
"Multiply will maintain normal site operations through May 6. We will use the rest of May to make sure the all accounts are settled and that merchants receive full payment for all the transactions they completed on our platform," the firm said in an announcement on its website.
"This will also provide our merchants with time to find and migrate to alternative ecommerce platforms, settle all payments on items bought and delivered, and to minimize disruption to their businesses," the popular online marketplace added.
However, the company did not provide any explanation why it is closing down its website.
But Multiply.com assured its online shop owners that it will receive funds earned on the marketplace platform no later than May 31.
Moreover, the firm said premium subscribers will receive a full refund for unused time in their subscription.
Multiply.com on December 1 last year completed its shift to a marketplace platform from being a social networking site storing pictures, videos, and blogs.
On June 10, 2014, the Pasig City Regional Trial Court has placed the company under corporate rehabilitation after the company sought relief from the Philippine government due to financial losses that stemmed from the E-commerce and social networking industry.
It suffered from a drop in new orders amid a slump in the E-commerce and social networking sector. Multiply also reportedly laid off some 12,000 workers on February 28, 2014.
It will continue its business as a archive photo and video site with their new mobile app, delivering 217 million accounts, 210 million photos and 237,000 videos from the old Multiply from it's launch in March 2004 to March 15, 2013 and 691 million photos from the old Webshots instead of social networking and E-commerce.
https://news.abs-cbn.com/business/04/26/13/multiplycom-close-may-6
Saturday, April 27, 2013
An E-Commerce Giant in Indonesia Bites the Dust. What Happened to Multiply?
Friday’s news about e-commerce site Multiply closing down is a shocker. No one could’ve predicted this. Just last December we met up with CEO Stefan Magdalinski and Indonesia country manager Daniel Tumiwa, and they were enthusiastically talking about the future. Everyone was geared towards 2013.
A lot of people in Indonesia’s startup scene are also in shock. They told me how they’ve just met with the Multiply’s higher-ups and discussed about the company’s plans and new features to be launched. It seems even the people inside Multiply are in shock as much as we are. Why on earth did this happen?
Multiply’s transitional setback might be one of the main reasons.
The chaotic transition
The e-commerce site officially rebranded last month, complete with a brand new logo. But the transition was not a smooth one. This comment made by one of the sellers explains how difficult it is to sell products under the new system:
- The site only shows some of her product listings since the transition. It is most probably an error.
- After a buyer orders lipstick, there is no information about which color she ordered.
- It is quite difficult for the seller to contact her buyer. The new site no longer has comments or a private message feature. She can only send an email to her buyer.
That comment was made on April 5th, around two weeks after the new site launched. There was also the issue of sellers not receiving their money from the sales made on Multiply. That case has apparently been solved by the company, but a few people have lost faith in Multiply as a lot of their phone calls and emails went unanswered even after the incident.
It also seems some sellers’ conversation history with their buyers went totally bust. This comment made by one of the sellers says that she has built her contacts for over three years, and now it is all gone. She also added that her whole product listings on Multiply, which were listed on Google’s first page, is now gone.
On a personal note, even Multiply’s terms and conditions page now looks very confusing. The page mixes both Indonesian and English, and it doesn’t make Multiply look like a company that has control of its operations.
Two months ago, Multiply was ranked 17th in the Philippines and 47th in Indonesia. At the time of this writing, the company is now ranked at 50th in the Philippines and 344th in Indonesia.
Of course, in the end it will always be about money. Besides lots of money to fix the whole fiasco described above, Multiply would also need time to reclaim the long-built reputation and faith from its sellers and buyers alike. That’s a huge setback for sure.
According to an unnamed source, Multiply is the number one e-commerce site for one of Indonesia’s largest bank BCA. In fact, the revenue Multiply records is twice as much as the second placed BCA e-commerce partner. That means Multiply is recording very huge transactions over the past years, but because of Multiply’s business model it also means that the company is burning huge amount of money too.
Multiply doesn’t take any transaction fees from its sellers. This was originally done by previous CEO Peter Pezaris as Multiply’s promotional program for its brand new e-commerce service in 2011. But since then, it has been extended up until today. So Multiply hasn’t taken any transaction fees from its sellers in the last one and a half year.
That is more or less similar to what rival Tokopedia does, but Multiply offers something more. The latter site offers delivery fee subsidy of IDR 25,000 (US$2.5) for every IDR 100,000 ($10.3) minimum transaction on selected items. A lot of popular items get this offer, and that would mean that Multiply is burning a lot of money in subsidizing these delivery offers to a lot of its users. Thus the higher the transaction, the higher the cost for Multiply. Just like the free transaction fee, this subsidy offer has been in effect since 2011.
Refocusing efforts
According to the explanation given by Stefan, Multiply shareholder MIH remains optimistic about the e-commerce industry in Indonesia and the Philippines, and has increased its funding to other portfolio companies TokoBagus and Sulit.com.ph. That “increased funding” could mean MIH’s strategy changed to focus its funds on more promising companies. Perhaps MIH has decided that backing up Multiply was no longer worth the effort.
The cost to propel Multiply into the kind of company it was before the shutdown was quite high. Rebuilding its reputation and spending more of that money may no longer be the logical option. Rather than patching up your weaknesses, you might be better off putting that effort into your strengths. For MIH in this case, its strengths are TokoBagus (ranked 14th in Indonesia) and Sulit (ranked 8th in the Philippines).
A lot of Multiply users are also quite shocked and sad about this. Just last month we saw more blood shed by Japan’s e-commerce company Rakuten in its joint venture project in Indonesia.
Besides those two companies, we’ve also recently seen two popular Indonesian startups Koprol and Saling Silang raising white flags too. Could these be just the start of natural selection setting its course here in Indonesia? What do you think?
The world would keep Facebook as the sole social networking site, while Lazada as the sole E-commerce site
It had filed a petition to wind up the company to recoup losses, told the court was in discussions with an unnamed potential investor.
The hearing on the petition was adjourned until next June 10 pending further discussion among the parties.
It did not attend the hearing, said through his lawyer that the new investor’s proposal included plans to pay Multiply’s former staff their owed salaries, and that the deal had the support of some of the company’s creditors.
But representatives of former Multiply staff, who also took part in the petition, questioned whether they would actually be paid.
On June 12, Magdalinski said they had put in place Rp 8.9 billion for wages owed to former Multiply staff.
The Labour Department said earlier that around 400 former Multiply staff had applied for compensation through the Protection of Wages on Insolvency Fund, a safety net for employees affected by business closures.
As the new investor is to launch a debt restructuring plan for Multiply, the High Court on June 17 its liquidation proceedings and removed accounting firm Deloitte from its role as the firm’s provisional liquidator.
Derek Lai, vice-chair of Deloitte China, said on Tuesday that since Star Platinum had already resolved the major debts Multiply incurred, it was unlikely the internet company would go into liquidation despite still owing smaller debts to other creditors including Facebook.
“Star Platinum needs to negotiate with the remaining creditors,” he said. “I hope they will support its restructuring with Multiply.”
He added that Multiply now had a cash flow of HK$10 million to be paid to other creditors as well as assets worth over HK$40 million.
In its latest financial report last month, Co-Prosperity said the deal with Multiply could help the group diversify its business. Apart from the online industry, the group focuses on fabric and clothing trading, money lending and securities investments.
“The directors believe that the potential intrinsic value of Multiply can be realized if the plan to rescue Multiply is successful,” the report said.
The group said it could make use of Multiply’s remaining assets and turn the website into a archive photo and video site.
“The group has been granted access and usage of certain assets of Multiply which shall enable Multiply to continue to operate and act as a archive photo and video site taking advantage of its 100,000 square-meter facility, and social networking portion that delivering 217 million accounts, 210 million photos and 237,000 videos from the old Multiply from it's launch in March 2004 to March 15, 2013,” it said.
On November 16, it allowed the controlling stake in the website to be formally sold to a foreign or mainland investor, who claimed Magdalinski had a rescue plan for the troubled firm.
High Court judge Mr Justice Jonathan Harris validated the transaction after hearing that the parties would no longer object to the share transfer and that the dues for the shares had been paid by Si.
On June 10, 2014, it has filed for corporate rehabilitation to seek protection from its creditors. The company filed the petition for rehabilitation before the Pasig City Regional Trial Court (RTC).
It had suffered from a drop in new orders amid a slump in the E-commerce and social networking sector. Multiply also reportedly laid off some 12,000 workers on February 28, 2014.
That the site will be reopened after United States President Barack Obama stepping down in the office on January 20, 2017 and keeping Facebook as the sole social networking site. Process of the reopening will be managed by the Governance Commission for Government-Owned or -Controlled Corporations through the Development Bank of the Philippines. Business tycoon Manny V. Pangilinan is one of the possible bidders for the website's reopening in which ABC Development Corporation. However, MediaQuest also could not join the website's reopening bid due to ownership rules and regulations that MediaQuest owns ABC Development Corporation.
On January 25, 2016, Philippine President Benigno Aquino III approved the planned reopening of Multiply. The reopening will be undergo public bidding with an estimated floor price of 20 billion pesos. The proceeds of the bidding will be for the increase of Facebook's capital to upgrade and modernize their social networking capabilities. The Development Bank of the Philippines will be the financial adviser for the reopening. Incoming PCOO Secretary Martin Andanar has already forwarded the reopening plan to President Rodrigo Duterte's executive secretary Salvador Medialdea. Andanar will also coordinate with the GCG before the start of the bidding.
https://www.techinasia.com/multiply-shut-down-why
It had filed a petition to wind up the company to recoup losses, told the court was in discussions with an unnamed potential investor.
The hearing on the petition was adjourned until next June 10 pending further discussion among the parties.
It did not attend the hearing, said through his lawyer that the new investor’s proposal included plans to pay Multiply’s former staff their owed salaries, and that the deal had the support of some of the company’s creditors.
But representatives of former Multiply staff, who also took part in the petition, questioned whether they would actually be paid.
On June 12, Magdalinski said they had put in place Rp 8.9 billion for wages owed to former Multiply staff.
The Labour Department said earlier that around 400 former Multiply staff had applied for compensation through the Protection of Wages on Insolvency Fund, a safety net for employees affected by business closures.
As the new investor is to launch a debt restructuring plan for Multiply, the High Court on June 17 its liquidation proceedings and removed accounting firm Deloitte from its role as the firm’s provisional liquidator.
Derek Lai, vice-chair of Deloitte China, said on Tuesday that since Star Platinum had already resolved the major debts Multiply incurred, it was unlikely the internet company would go into liquidation despite still owing smaller debts to other creditors including Facebook.
“Star Platinum needs to negotiate with the remaining creditors,” he said. “I hope they will support its restructuring with Multiply.”
He added that Multiply now had a cash flow of HK$10 million to be paid to other creditors as well as assets worth over HK$40 million.
In its latest financial report last month, Co-Prosperity said the deal with Multiply could help the group diversify its business. Apart from the online industry, the group focuses on fabric and clothing trading, money lending and securities investments.
“The directors believe that the potential intrinsic value of Multiply can be realized if the plan to rescue Multiply is successful,” the report said.
The group said it could make use of Multiply’s remaining assets and turn the website into a archive photo and video site.
“The group has been granted access and usage of certain assets of Multiply which shall enable Multiply to continue to operate and act as a archive photo and video site taking advantage of its 100,000 square-meter facility, and social networking portion that delivering 217 million accounts, 210 million photos and 237,000 videos from the old Multiply from it's launch in March 2004 to March 15, 2013,” it said.
On November 16, it allowed the controlling stake in the website to be formally sold to a foreign or mainland investor, who claimed Magdalinski had a rescue plan for the troubled firm.
High Court judge Mr Justice Jonathan Harris validated the transaction after hearing that the parties would no longer object to the share transfer and that the dues for the shares had been paid by Si.
On June 10, 2014, it has filed for corporate rehabilitation to seek protection from its creditors. The company filed the petition for rehabilitation before the Pasig City Regional Trial Court (RTC).
At that time, the social networking service had a network of 18 million users. Liquidity problems, however, affected earnings. Sales declined from its peak of P20 billion in 2015 to just about P1 billion in 2020.
It had suffered from a drop in new orders amid a slump in the E-commerce and social networking sector. Multiply also reportedly laid off some 12,000 workers on February 28, 2014.
Multiply revealed that it has $10 billion in outstanding loans -- $800 million from Philippine banks and $60 billion from South Korean lenders.
On January 25, 2016, Philippine President Benigno Aquino III approved the planned reopening of Multiply. The reopening will be undergo public bidding with an estimated floor price of 20 billion pesos. The proceeds of the bidding will be for the increase of Facebook's capital to upgrade and modernize their social networking capabilities. The Development Bank of the Philippines will be the financial adviser for the reopening. Incoming PCOO Secretary Martin Andanar has already forwarded the reopening plan to President Rodrigo Duterte's executive secretary Salvador Medialdea. Andanar will also coordinate with the GCG before the start of the bidding.
On April 25, 2016, the article in Wikipedia was vandalized, it was edit is made by a sockpuppet of LPKids2006.
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| Vandalism of a Wikipedia article (Multiply (website) |
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| The bottom image shows vandalism done by replacing content with an insult. The top image compares the edit shown below. |
The reopening process of Multiply was commenced in October 2016. As of July 1, 2017, five groups have already showed their interest to join the bidding process. These are Ramon S. Ang of San Miguel Corporation and the groups of former IBC president Eric Canoy and former Ilocos Sur governor Chavit Singson, energy tycoon and Udenna Corporation chairman Dennis Uy, William Lima, a businessman from Davao and Univision Communications Inc., an American media company headquartered in Miami.