Malaysia Price Checker shut down on 01 September 2013

Malaysia Price Checker started not long after I get married, where I am more involved in groceries shopping and was curious about the reasonable (or bargain) price of my favorite coffee, peanut butter and cheese. I have a need, I build a solution.

After one year, I learned a few things (no guaranteed of conclusiveness):

• Recording of grocery price if of no fun, at least food review still have some "bragging" rights; thus the source of data is not sustainable in an organic way.
• Mostly "aunties" do the shopping, and "aunties" seldom use apps or website
• After repetitive shopping of the same grocery list, I kinda memorized the reasonable price.
• I am too lazy to go to another place to buy groceries just because they are cheap; I prefer some place near and familiar
• I never adopted the habit to check for grocery prices online, though I would like to check for the online prices for hardware and mobile devices.
• Each product items attracts about 4.7 visitors per month, which is faily low and cost of product acquisition is fairly high and fairly limited.

Numbers about Malaysia Price Checker

Launch Date: 10 Aug, 2011

Unique Visitors: 16.8K / July 2013, Peak @ 21.2K / March 2013

Pageviews: 28.6K / July 2013, Peak @  39.3K / March 2013

Number of Products listed:  4,444
Number of Price posted: 5,665

Malaysia Price Checker Visits (Jan 2012 - Jul 2012)

We stop increasing the number of products and prices entry since October 2012, yet the web traffic is still sustainable with some growth (Interesting, meaning the data doesn't aged quickly)

Why did I quit?

• No longer interested: I no longer find there is a need to check grocery price online (I can't develop a product which I am no longer interested to use).
• Economically not feasible: my "business model" is publishing, where I published useful information online and make money from advertisement; the increase of visitor in tandem with the number of product entered is fairly low (21.2K visitors / 4.4K products = each product attract 4.7 visitors per month). I faced problem increasing the number of products and getting people interested to contribute information. Advertisement Income depends on Visitors/Pageviews, Visitors/Pageviews depends on Product/Price, Product/Price depends on user contributions or solicited data source. The number doesn't looks good.
• Distractions: Nowadays I am more interested in restaurant and travel discovery.

Is there still hope?

Maybe. I quit because I found something more interesting to work on, and I didn't quite push the idea far enough (I lost interest too fast, and I got distracted with "better" ideas).

I didn't pursue the idea of including prices of electronics gadgets, books, etc. I didn't optimize the site further for growth hacking. As shown in the Visit Graph above, the visitors still sustained after 9 months since the last data entry (the information didn't aged quickly).

Price Checker: Keep track of Grocery Price (and Computer Peripherals)

While strolling through Tesco to perform Grocery shopping, I always wonder if the Promotion is really a steal, or did the price went up or gone down for a specific item. For a newbie shopper like me, I don’t know anything about the prices, and I wanted to know if I could be a smart shopper like the "Aunties", by leveraging on technology.

Thus born the idea of Malaysia Price Checker, where we keep track of the prices of grocery, and everyone can contribute to build a better system. Now I can know what’s the expected market price for Mister Potato, or which place sold the cheapest SD Card.

Bear with us as we quietly launch the service about 2 months ago, having archived over 1000+ items; do feel free to use the platform, contribute prices if possible, and give feedbacks if you feel there are rooms for improvement (we have a whole list of work in progress).

One day, I shall be better than the aunties in price comparison :)

Malaysia Most Wanted: Home-based Data Entry Job v2.0

Malaysia Most Wanted Price would like to recruit you as home based data entry personnel, so that you could make some pocket money while working in your pajamas from home :)

Basic Requirements

• A Responsible Person (DO NOT proceed if you have doubt).
• Basic Computer and Internet Skill (No Programming or Technical Skill required)
• Decent English Reading and Writing Skill
• Have a computer with Internet access (Broadband recommended)
• Have access to a digital camera (at least 3MP)
• Perform monthly or weekly grocery shopping
• Preferably those shopping around KL/Klang Valley, JB and Penang.

Job Scope

• Take photograph of purchased groceries.
• Perform data entry about the product's information, such as Name, Price, Ingredients, Manufacturer, etc. View Example.
• Detailed guidelines shall be provided upon shortlisting

Pay

• You are paid between RM 1-2 for each new product entry
• There is a RM 10 bonus for every 50 new products entered (valid for the 1st 100 products)
• Payment shall be made within 7 days upon your request for payment

You can work from anytime and anywhere (as long as you have a Computer and Broadband). Students, Housewives and the Less Privileged are encouraged to apply.

Interested Candidates do email your resume (tell us about yourself and your background) to info (at) malaysiamostwanted [dot] com