Many people saw the guide sign «to Public Sale» and didn't pay serious attention to it , and there were many visitors to these public sales who did not think of it more than a place of buying needs. Only «Yosef» and «Abdullah» who saw the guide sign like others, visited the Sale, like many, but certainly cut the distance very quickly between a glimpse to a new experience, and cross easily the barrier between the «traditional view» to «a look of curiosity, passion and dreams». Yusuf and Abdullah owned a creative and innovative idea and discover the society need for a new service and refused to limit their creativity when they decided to convey public sale from the real world to the virtual world.
KFUPM Graduates Yousef Al Rashidi and Abdullah Al Rashidi are the founders of the famous site Haraj, which is used by more than 5 million subscribers a month and the number of viewed page on the site and the application reached about 600 million per month, and the trades' amounts, in Haraj, exceed 400 million Riyals per month. Haraj estimated market value is at 500 million to one billion Riyals.
To talk about this project, "Al Jameaa" met the founders of the site. Yousef Al Rashidi said "I moved to live with my colleague Abdullah Al-Rashidi in Building 9, Room 104 in the year 2001, my major was Computer Engineering while my colleague's was Civil Engineering. Internet in student housing was provided recently. My colleague Abdullah used to own a computer, and it was the first computer I used since high school."
"The presence of the Internet and a computer was a motivation for us to establish small businesses that run from our great passion for the information age that swept the world in that period. At first, we created a forum initially specialized in stock trading.
The stock market boom had a major role in educating people technically, a lot of people keen to own laptop and Internet subscriptions. Banks, also, developed significantly their electronic services. The stock market changed the view of many users that the Internet is not just a tool for entertainment and people began to use it in the business on a large scale.
"The increase of Internet users has increased advertising through forums, in our stocks forum we received ads for the sale of cars and renting apartments, on the other hand I and my colleague Abdullah frequently visited traditional public sales (haraj). In one of the weekends while I was with my colleague heading to haraj I saw the traditional panel refers to the haraj site, and we said why there is no electronical Haraj, therefore we designed the website".
"My colleague Abdullah had a commercial registration and we used it to register the website and we got the approval of the Communication and Information Commission and registered our site with the name haraj.com.sa. The site was officially launched in 2006". He added.
"I continue to develop the site, and in the beginning, there were a little number of visitors, but after graduation in 2007 and joined work in one of the largest banks, I got more time on improving the site".
In time, the development of the site has increased dramatically, and with the large developments in Internet Tools, and the emerge of smart devices, I had to work more on the site, therefore, on late 2011 I resigned from my job at the bank and devoted myself completely to «Haraj».
"In Computer Engineering, I studied a lot of specialized programming, design and material and I used this knowledge to get out the idea of the site« Haraj ». The cooperation of my colleague and the harmony of our goals were the main reasons for the success of Haraj.
"I and my colleague Abdullah Al Rashidi often disagree in some details, but we lived in the same room for years and a lot of beautiful moments and difficulties formed the strong basis for the continuation of our work ».
"Most of the time, Abdullah was enjoying a clear mood, and deals with the difficulties with tolerance. This helps us to overcome obstacles, and he provided me with the first computer and encouraged me a lot on the programming, and encouraged me to learn about other disciplines as his major was Civil Engineering".
He said that the site needs to develop always. With every increase in the number of visitors we need to increase servers and add services and solutions. The website is as any other products needs to develop continuously.
Abdullah Al-Rashidi said that from the outset, their activities were a result of their interest in the web and the Internet in general and their experiences were driven by desire, curiosity and passion for the Internet, but they were monitoring the general orientation of the users. In the beginning, they founded the stock forum when they noticed the great trend to stock trade and then founded the site «Haraj» as a result of the users' desire in electronic dealing.
He said from the very beginning we were keen to discuss ideas together and let users approve the success or failure of any idea.
Regarding the income for the site, he said that the main source of it is the commission from sales, where the advertiser undertakes to pay 1 per cent of the transaction when the sale completed.
He believes that the online marketing is very promising, and there are many opportunities as long as new creative ideas emerge. The Kingdom market and e-commerce is still at the beginning of her career, but it is very fertile.
Moreover, the government provides solutions for e-commerce; for example Monetary Agency launched a new payment system (Sadad) in order to enable users to purchase from Haraj directly and pay through the new system.
Asking about the administrative ability of Haraj founders and their leadership thought, Abdullah Al-Rashidi said that it was the result of experiences, readings, inspecting, careful learning from outstanding expertise and time investment.
"Our presence at the university, the academic study and its environment has taught us a lot, changed us and involve us in a different community that appreciates time, stimulates creativity and changed our view to life." He added