This just in, Online shopping site Multiply.com will finally bid good bye on May 6, going offline permanently and will cease business operations on May 31.
Here’s the screen capture of the official announcement posted in their website. [Source]
We had Google translate it for us and here’s what they had to say.
With so sorry, we announce that the site Multiply.co.id (and Multiply.com) will be closed as of May 6, 2013 and we will stop all our business activities as of May 31, 2013.
Multiply.co.id will run as normal activities until May 6, 2013. We will use the remaining time during the month of May 2013 to ensure that all things in the process of buying and selling stuff and whole sellers and buyers get their rights. Also to provide an opportunity for sellers to move their products to other e-commerce sites, complete all activities associated with the sale, payment and delivery of goods, and to minimize disruption to the operations of the seller.
We will ensure that all of the seller from the sales that have been completed and has been shipped to the buyer. We will continue to fully deal with the repayment deadline May 31, 2013. We will close the trade for earlier than that date, ie the date May 6, 2013, to ensure all bookings get sufficient time to be processed by the seller.
The vendors that also may have a Premium account, we please contact Customer Service and we’ll be sure to receive back the amount Premium account that has not expired, if still remaining.
The PH website has the same announcement already.
According to DailySocial, MultiChoice Limited (later named MIH Holdings Limited) which is one of the major shareholder of Mulitply says they are still optimistic about ecommerce in Asia specially the Philippines, MIH owns 51% of Sulit.com.ph.
We’ve predicted this months ago when Multiply announced the shutting down of their social networking features. We’ve also tried to appeal to the new management, but they just wouldn’t listen.
They just couldn’t get it through their thick skulls that e-commerce in Multiply was actually started informally as an extended activity of online friendship. Sellers and buyers were online friends who were not only doing business but were sharing stories as well, as most sellers were actually bloggers (or at least started as bloggers). The business in Multiply back then relied on human touch. This human touch was actually the best attraction to shop, and eliminating this human touch means burning the shop. That’s what kills Multiply.
That, and the incompetence and arrogance of their personnel; their customer service in particular.
Anyway, I wouldn’t trust them to refund the accounts. When they closed down the social networking features, they’ve promised to refund the previous Premium account and they failed to do it.