Apt App for Textbook Sales

Free Instagram-like app allows students to buy and sell textbooks just by posting a photo.

By Aqil Haziq

Forget the frantic rush for textbooks at the start of semester — an app for buying and selling of new and used textbooks is gaining popularity among NTU students.

The free iPhone and Android app is currently used millions of times each month.

“The app will make it possible to quickly find sellers for the book I want,” said Kerbin Lim, 22, a first-year student from the Nanyang Business School who was unable to find second-hand textbooks as he didn’t know any seniors.

Carousell was founded by NUS graduates Quek Siu Rui, 26, Lucas Ngoo, 25, and Marcus Tan, 30, after they discovered that forums like HardwareZone, which many use for buying and selling textbooks, did not support the direct uploading of images.

“I needed to upload images of my items on another image-hosting service before embedding the links on the forum post,” Mr Quek said.

PHOTO: CAROUSELL

And so they launched a demo app last March, and published it in five months after receiving rave reviews from friends. The app also has a filter function where users can select photo effects to beautify their items — similar to Instagram. But the app’s manager Victor Neo, a final-year student from the NTU School of Computer Engineering was quick to point out that Carousell is not entirely like its counterpart.

“Instagram users hashtag their items so they can be seen by all users. Carousell removes the need for hashtags as all items posted on the app will automatically be seen by potential buyers,” the 25-year-old said.

Apart from textbooks, items on sale on Carousell include cameras, laptops and even a car.

But despite the good reviews, some users believe there is still room for improvement.

Louisa Tang, 21, suggested adding an online payment feature for easier commerce. “It would be better if there were modes of payment like PayPal or credit cards to make transactions faster so that buyers won’t have to set up meetings with prospective sellers,” said the first-year student from the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information.

Although most of Carousell’s users are from Singapore, the team plans to reach out to the Malaysian audience and also the rest of Southeast Asia.