FT on Asean scholarship is proud to be Mudlaysian

[Rogue Trader]

Malaysian whiz kid wows Oz

The Star/Asia News Network
Thursday, Jan 26, 2012

PETALING JAYA, Malaysia - He left Malaysia when he was 12 to study in Singapore on an Asean scholarship. Then, it was off to Trinity College in Australia.

Today, at the age of 25, Petaling Jaya lad Fong Wai Hong has found fame Down Under as The Age Melbourne Magazine's top 100 most influential people 2012.

However, no matter how rich or famous he gets, home is where his heart is for the Malaysian-born lad.

Wong founded the successful online retail business OzHut, whose revenue currently stands at RM8.4mil (S$3.4mil) following its establishment in 2007.

"I may have been abroad since I was 12 but I still consider myself a Malaysian. There are many Malaysians who feel the same way despite being away from the country in search of a new life," he said.

 

[Scrooball (clone)]

His website is not bad. But he should have chosen to do a Whois guard on his domain address. The whole world can see where he stays.

 

[Leongsam]

The site doesn't rank at all.

http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/ozhut.com.au

What gives????

 

[Scrooball (clone)]

The site doesn't rank at all.

http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/ozhut.com.au

What gives????

The website design and layout is pretty good. And it seems like he has done some affiliation deals with many major retailers.

 

[po2wq]

The site doesn't rank at all. ... What gives????

ppl's site revenue is RM8.4mil (S$3.4mil) ... urs no fite @ all ...

n u so obssessed wif ranking like ze sinkie gahmen ...

...
Wong founded the successful online retail business OzHut, whose revenue currently stands at RM8.4mil (S$3.4mil) following its establishment in 2007. ...

 

[Unrepented]

Are you trying to imply that those who rely on alexa as a yardstick are dumb dumb

The site doesn't rank at all.

http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/ozhut.com.au

What gives????

 

[Scrooball (clone)]

Can sammyboy.com generate $3million revenue? lol

 

[Leongsam]

ppl's site revenue is RM8.4mil (S$3.4mil) ... urs no fite @ all ...

n u so obssessed wif ranking like ze sinkie gahmen ...

The ranking is not the issue. I'm doubting the revenue figures. 3.4 million per year is a turnover of $9000 per day.

If it's 3.4 million since it was established, then that's a turnover of $2300 per day (assuming 4 years).

A site with a ranking of 542,000 would have about 200 unique visitors per day. If the conversion rate was 1 out 20 which is extremely optimistic, it would mean that each customer bought $230 worth of goods. It just doesn't seem to add up.

 

[Leongsam]

Can sammyboy.com generate $3million revenue? lol

If I started selling stuff on line, the answer is a definite yes as the traffic here is 10 times higher.

 

[Scrooball (clone)]

The ranking is not the issue. I'm doubting the revenue figures. 3.4 million per year is a turnover of $9000 per day.

If it's 3.4 million since it was established, then that's a turnover of $2300 per day (assuming 4 years).

A site with a ranking of 542,000 would have about 200 unique visitors per day. If the conversion rate was 1 out 20 which is extremely optimistic, it would mean that each customer bought $230 worth of goods. It just doesn't seem to add up.

You forgot about advertising revenue and affiliation deals

 

[Scrooball (clone)]

If I started selling stuff on line, the answer is a definite yes as the traffic here is 10 times higher.

Sell stuff? What can you sell? So easy to talk about it, but i doubt you have any business ideas. If you had, you wouldn't have wasted all this traffic with no sizeable revenue to speak of.

 

[Leongsam]

You forgot about advertising revenue and affiliation deals

No that's all included in my estimates. The figures simply don't add up. Advertising revenue for a site with such low traffic is minuscule.

http://ozhut.com.au.siteaero.com/

Even if you add all the linked domains such as ozgadgets.com.au, it's still insufficient traffic to churn out these sorts of revenue figures.

I'm not doubting his ability. I'm doubting the accuracy of the article.

 

[po2wq]

No that's all included in my estimates. The figures simply don't add up. Advertising revenue for a site with such low traffic is minuscule ...

Even if you add all the linked domains such as ozgadgets.com.au, it's still insufficient traffic to churn out these sorts of revenue figures.

I'm not doubting his ability. I'm doubting the accuracy of the article.

u mite as wel ask 4 independent data n stats ... n oso, 4 tis case, external audit repot ...

 

[Leongsam]

Sell stuff? What can you sell? So easy to talk about it, but i doubt you have any business ideas. If you had, you wouldn't have wasted all this traffic with no sizeable revenue to speak of.

I run 4 e-commerce sites at the moment. It's the money I make from those enables me to run with this site. That's why I'm familiar with site revenue figures vs traffic.

Selling stuff on the net is not black magic. It's pretty much become a standard template. You can download complete shopping cart systems FOC and run everything without having to hold an iota of stuck. All revenue can be based on affiliate programs so the headaches of stocking inventory levels aren't yours to worry about.

However, if you run the whole site based on affiliate earnings, you'll get a very small percentage for physical goods. For downloadable items, it's a bit better but it's still only 15% to 20%.

With 200 to 300 visitors per day, there is simply insufficient traffic to make a decent living. That's why I believe the article is not accurate.

 

[Leongsam]

u mite as wel ask 4 independent data n stats ... n oso, 4 tis case, external audit repot ...

I just brought the issue up for discussion since I'm familiar with the industry. Newspaper articles are invariably grossly inaccurate but they aren't financial reports. It's none of my business if they give erroneous info.

If he's on the "influential" list, then the revenue must be accurate and a large chunk of his revenue must be coming from somewhere else other than online sales.

 

[Rogue Trader]

If he's on the "influential" list, then the revenue must be accurate and a large chunk of his revenue must be coming from somewhere else other than online sales.

then he must have slept with a couple of big shots to close some big deals

 

[Scrooball (clone)]

then he must have slept with a couple of big shots to close some big deals

Does he have the looks to pull this off?

 

[Scrooball (clone)]

I run 4 e-commerce sites at the moment. It's the money I make from those enables me to run with this site. That's why I'm familiar with site revenue figures vs traffic.

Do your e-commerce websites have SSL certs? Are they even useful enough to justify paying for them?

 

[Leongsam]

Do your e-commerce websites have SSL certs? Are they even useful enough to justify paying for them?

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/zPqtx1J6udc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[Scrooball (clone)]

You don't expect me to take advice from a cardboard video made by third graders do u? lol