Looking for the best deal on used car? There is an algorithm for that.
Algorithms surround us in our everyday life. They help us find information, and make informed decisions. Take Autouncle.com for example, the Danish company based in Aarhus helps people buy or sell used cars based on a specific market, car model, brand, amount of kilometers, and other variables, all through an algorithm they named AutoScore.
There are a lot of areas, which you can say, are jungles, but the used cars market is probably THE jungle, and there is actually a clear explanation for that. First, the used car market is scattered, so as a consumer I would have to go to many different websites to be sure I find the best deals. Secondly, comparing prices on used cars is exceptionally hard because they all have different specifications. So, we told ourselves ‘We need to solve this problem – says Johan Frederick Schjødt, Autuncle.com’s Co-Founder and CEO.
To do this, Autouncle first gathered information about used cars on the market, and later on cleaned, labeled and indexed that information to make it accessible to people that wanted to find the best deals.
We developed this to help consumers, but the interesting part is that professionals were also struggling with this (as well) – says Schjødt.
In the past, the price for a used car was set based on its original price, and then depending on different factors the price was calculated, without taking the market into account, explains Autouncle’s Co-Founder.
Autouncle is present in 9 different markets besides Denmark, including Sweden, Germany, Austria, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Poland and Finland.
For us, we always treated Denmark as a sandbox. Here is where we began, we know the market, but finding the best car deal is not just a Danish problem, it is a universal problem. It was at the core of our vision to make something big.
For some of these markets Autouncle has a Country Manager, someone that takes care of the marketing, public relations, social media presence, among other things. These managers are based in Aarhus with the rest of the team, but most of them are natives of the specific country.
Autouncle has been very good at getting traction both in the mainstream, as well as specialized media in these markets, getting mentions in recognized media outlets such as Der Spiegel in Germany, El Pais in Spain, among others.
“On one hand there is a crazy competition out there to get your voice through, on the other hand you will always have something to say. It is very important that startups don’t do advertising, no journalist would like to publish advertising, but if you do something that is news worthy is different”, Schjødt says.
“For example, for us, we gather a lot of information, and when we pull out important facts about the market, that is relevant for people interested in cars, so for us that is important, but the key is always figure out what is it that you do that could be news worthy for the public, and not get too obsess about getting advertising out there”, says the Co-Founder.
