carsales.com is an online marketplace, which specializes in automotive, motorcycle and marine classifieds business in Australia. The head office is located in the City of Yarra.
Within Australia, carsales.com manages a network of sites for online classifieds as well as other sites related to the automotive industry.
carsales.com was recognised by Forbes as one of the most innovative growth companies in 2017.[1]
History
In 1997, carsales.com was founded and launched its website, led by Greg Roebuck and Wal Pisciotta. In 2000, it became a public non-listed company. In 2002, Greg Roebuck was appointed Chief Executive Officer.
In 2009, carsales.com became carsales.com.au after floating onto the ASX Stock Exchange.[2]
In 2015, carsales sued competitor CarsGuide.com.au in the Supreme Court of Victoria, over allegations that its media campaign was grossly misleading and deceptive towards Carsales.com.au.[3]
In March 2017, Greg Roebuck stood down from his role as CEO and was replaced by Cameron McIntyre.[4]
In recent years it has continued to expand its portfolio, both locally and internationally. Since this period, carsales.com has created a strong presence in Chile, Mexico, Brazil, South Korea, Argentina, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. RedBook, a subsidiary of carsales.com, is a data services business that has operations in Australia, New Zealand, China, Thailand and Malaysia.
Acquisitions and investments
In December 2009 Carsales buy the online classified business of PBL owned ACP Magazines Limited (Carpoint.com.au, Boatpoint.com.au, Bikepoint.com.au and Ihub.com.au) along with research and statistic company Equipment Research Group Pty Ltd (ERG). In return ACP would take up a 41 per cent stake in Carsales.
In April 2010, carsales.com purchased Quicksales for $1.1 million
In October 2015, carsales.com purchased 65% of SoloAutos for $9 million[5]
In March 2016, carsales.com purchased 83% of ChileAutos for $20 million[6]
In January 2017, carsales.com purchased DeMotores for $6.7 million[7][8]
In November 2017, carsales.com purchased SK Encar for $244 million (after previously having purchased 49.9% for $126 million in April 2014)[9]
carsales.com is also invested in Redbook Inspect (previously AutoInspect), tyresales.com, Stratton and Assembly Payments (previously PromisePay[10]).[11][12]
Also note:
Sold the Homesales brand and service to BMT Tax Depreciation[13]
Partnerships and accreditation
Australian Formula 1 driver Daniel Ricciardo is currently the carsales’ Global Brand Ambassador with the carsales logo appearing on the chin of Daniel's helmet and on his media hat throughout the 2017 and 2018 F1 seasons[14][15]
carsales is also the major partner of the Melbourne Renegades Big Bash and Women's Big Bash League teams and this partnership sees the carsales logo featured on the chest of all Renegades games jerseys.[16][17][18]
carsales.com LTD has been recognised by WGEA as an Employer of Choice for Gender Equality for the past three-years. It is one of only 120 companies to be awarded this citation.[17]
In 2015 carsales became the naming rights sponsor of Todd Kelly's Nissan Altima Supercar in the Australia Supercar Championship. This relationship continued until the end of the 2017 season.[19]
Technology
The company has been industry recognised for its AI projects,[20][21] specifically its photo recognition tool cyclops.[22][23][24][25][26]
The technical stack of the company, including hosting in AWS,[27] has helped it expand into new countries: "[W]ith the microservices architecture - written predominantly in .NET with interaction provided by the RabbitMQ open source messaging system - now bedded down, Carsales has for the first time been able to expand its full platform into new markets.”[28]
In 2018 carsales.com partnered with CHEProximity[29] to create one of a kind car commercials for private sellers on its website.[30] This campaign was recognised within the marketing industry for its technical execution and impact.[31][32]
carsales.com launched its foundation in March 2016 "The Foundation has launched the Women in IT scholarship in conjunction with Swinburne University and the Indigenous Scholarship with Curtin University. As well as the scholarships, the Foundation stated it will also support various charities through company and individual staff donations, and fundraising activities."[33]
carsales.com is involved in a number of activities to help people learn about technology, including a school holiday program for kids.[34]
