The Sterling Group has ventured into e-commerce with the acquisition of online shopping site Galleon.ph and apps development firm Openovate Labs, which owns online job site Jobayan.ph.
Galleon.ph, a local version of Amazon, boasts of selling more than 500,000 products which can come from anywhere outside of the Philippines, but efficiently serves the Philippines’ 100 million population through a convenient payment system and delivery.
“Galleon.ph already receives 240,000 visitors per month,” said Sterling vice president Michelle Lim Gankee.
The buyout of Openovate brings into Sterling a hand into Jobayan.ph which has a tagline “Job Hunting Without a Hassle.” It is a jobs exchange site and has 10,000 resumes in its database which are available for a minimal fee on a per download basis. It also goes with Salaaap, an online product search system.
“It crawls the web for products ready to purchase and be delivered to where you live. What’s good with it is unlike other online shopping services, you may pay the product that you order COD [cash on delivery] right on your doorstep. You may choose not to pick it up at the store,” said Gankee.
The new investments indicate the Sterling Group’s commitment to opening up more jobs generation opportunities for the Philippine economy. “We are importing here a Filipino tech person who has lived out his career in the Silicon Valley environment, but who really wishes to stay here in the Philippines,” said Gankee.