Monday, February 10, 2025

Local startup for collectibles raring to grow PH market

Toki, which bills itself as the “first social commerce platform in the country that caters to collectibles”, is aiming to grow its market base despite being a just few months old.

In a media event held last July 10, Toki chief executive officer Frederic Levy recalled the founding of the company with his three other former GCash executives.

Levy, along with co-founders founders Zoe Ocampo, Jules Jurado, Prabh Singh, remained in contact with each other after leaving GCash, and were looking for the “next-big-thing.”  Their market research led them to the niche of e-commerce and collectibles. 

Collectibles is a $65-billion market in Southeast Asia as 46% of Southeast Asians and 37% of Filipinos identify themselves as collectors.

However, with 90% of transactions happening online, collectors face issues with authenticity, handling, and logistics, in their transaction.

The Toki founders banded together to venture into the online shopping landscape in the country by being a specialist, catering to the collector’s market. They launched “tokiasia.com” in November 2023, and it has since grown with over 60,000 registered users.

“Trust is the top concern of Toki. So, any seller who applies to the site is screened carefully and [we] even do physical inspections of the items and stocks being sold,” Levy said.

The limited number of sellers allows Toki to guarantee the buyers a great collecting experience without fake items or misleading postings.

Ocampo, also the Toki chief product officer, said that since the team is also part of the collecting community, they are able to identify the sellers or quality of the items being offered in the site. 

The site also has a verification team which inspects every item and its condition for every transaction before they are sent out to the buyers. 

Jurado, Toki’s chief strategy officer, stated that they currently have about 200 registered sellers belonging to six categories:

  • Funko Pop Figures
  • LEGO
  • Sneakers
  • Sports Cards
  • Trading Cards
  • Toys

As for its future plans, the site is planning to expand the number of registered sellers and add different categories such as K-Pop merchandise and fashion. 

The team is also currently working on the Toki app, which would have more features than the Web platform. The app expected to be launched by the fourth quarter of this year.

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