WHO would’ve thought you could make a business out of how flakey Malaysians are?
Well, brothers Ooi Eu Veng (right) and Eu Gene did, and success has come in a rather timely fashion for them.
Inspired by the raft of concerts held in Malaysia last year – Maroon 5, Bruno Mars, Justin Bieber and also Taylor Swift in Singapore – which had some people scrambling to buy tickets and others desperate to sell theirs after realising they couldn’t make the shows, the brothers came up with a simple yet brilliant idea to help.
The free online service, aptly named FongFeiKei (a Malaysian Cantonese term for flaking on an appointment, which translates literally as “flying an airplane”), helps match people who’ve bought tickets for shows they can’t go for anymore, with people desperate to buy them; hence their tagline: “The second best place to get your tickets.”
Here’s how it works: Let’s say you’ve gotten tickets for the Russell Peters show, but then realise later on that you can’t make it on that day and you can’t find anyone to buy the tickets off you.
What you can do now is send a tweet to FongFeiKei (@FongFeiKei) or post a message on their Facebook wall (facebook.com/FongFeiKei) – or even sign up at their website (ffk.me) to be a regular buyer/seller – and you’ll have plenty of potential buyers. In fact, they have around 7,000 regular users.
Or let’s say you wanted to buy tickets for the Russell Peters show, but they were sold out (as is the case, currently). You can make a request at FongFeiKei, and they’ll help match you with a seller.
“There was always the need for that. It’s part of the Malaysian culture to fong fei kei!” said Eu Gene, 27, with a laugh. “All we did was come up with a solution to help.”
Eu Veng, 29, added: “It’s also because top international artistes don’t come to Malaysia very often, so a lot of people just buy first, and regret later.”
Well, now they don’t have to regret too much, because FongFeiKei will most likely be able to help them get their money back.
The challenge for Eu Veng and Eu Gene, though, would be how they could make money out of FongFeiKei themselves to keep the business going.
One thing they knew from the start was that the service had to be free.
“It was just a service we wanted the people to have. It wasn’t so much about the money,” said Eu Gene. “But of course, if we can bring in features to rake in profits, that would be best.”
Which is why in the coming months, the brothers will be rolling out features targetted at businesses to bring in revenue, so FongFeiKei can continue to be advertisement-free, and also free for all.
“We’re allowing businesses to leverage on our strong online following,” said Eu Veng. “The 7,000 users we have are all first level users, people we reach directly.
“When it comes to social media, it’s not about the quantity of followers, but the quality. If you just have the numbers, but you can’t engage them, the number is as good as zero.”
When FongFeiKei first started, the brothers had to actively search for people wanting to sell off their tickets. Now, the level of engagement is such that they can pretty much sit back and wait for sellers to come to them.
Event companies have also approached them to promote local events and artistes, which is something they hope FongFeiKei can help with.
Eu Veng said: “Having all these concerts and shows in Malaysia spawns creativity. When the general consumer realises the potential our local acts have, they could be inspired to try performing as well.”
Tell us what you think!