TipidPC Interview

tipidpc logoI was able to do a quick interview with TipidPC’s Hermann Calero, a member of their Core Team. Although this interview is super-late since my previous article about TipidPC was made about a month and a half ago, I’m still glad that Calero, busy as he is (who isnt’??), took the time to answer my list of 9 questions:

Alleba Blog: How and when did TipidPC begin?

TipidPC: In August of 2001, a group of friends were sharing their hobbies with each other. They were members of the PinoyPC community, a community of Filipino PC enthusiasts. The section for buying and selling in the forum was so in demand, they aptly named the section “The Blackmarket”. Then the idea came up, instead of just having a portion of the forum for buying and selling, why not put up a site that is dedicated to buying and selling of PC parts.

So it was then they formed TipidPC.com (TPC), and that’s where it all started. The community then was small, limited to around people whose business is buying and selling computers. People got to know each other, and camaraderie between buyers and sellers grew.

With the increase in the site’s traffic, the current web hosting company was not able to handle the bandwidth needed by the site. Thus, TPC needed a new provider for their hosting needs. Along came Conceptsware, a hosting company owned by Mr. Alex Amadeo, or more popularly known then as ReB. The partnership was forged, and Conceptsware was able to provide more than enough to cover TPC’s requirements.

With the site’s following growing steadily, TPC decided to welcome to the team someone they can trust and help run the site better. Well, since they know ReB already and was very helpful with the server needs, why not include ReB along with the team, as he has been a very big help with the development.

Thus, the alliance was forged. Along with the growing number of members who were selling and buying in the site, the community wanted a place where they can build their camaraderie instead of just buying and selling. So TPC decided, it’s time to put a forum for our members.

The site had since made many changes, from the old green and black motif, to the blue and white and now with its current look, TPC just keeps getting better.

TPC is not just your usual IT site, it’s not just a trading site, and it’s not just a forum for IT enthusiasts. TPC more than anything else, is a community.

Alleba Blog: What inspired you to make a site such as TipidPC?

TipidPC: Jaydee, the programmer who actually coded the site after agreeing with the group (TPC Core Group) wanted to start this business as soon as possible.

Alleba Blog: Who are the people behind it?

TipidPC: We are a group of 8 people who own the site:

  1. Jesus Domingo
  2. Alex Amadeo
  3. Christian Maningding
  4. Hermann Thomas Calero
  5. Jason Migrino
  6. Ryan Jay Gregorio
  7. Christelle Gregorio
  8. Rosel Amadeo

Alleba Blog: Your name says it all. By how much can people save by purchasing through TipidPC as opposed to buying from brick and mortar establishments?

TipidPC: Well that question is quite relative to the experience of the buyer and since we don’t really track all individual success stories (since there are too many to mention), we basically feel that we are somehow affecting the pricing of tech products in the country. We are just giving a cheaper alternative for the hard earned money of Pinoys.

Alleba Blog: I am impressed by TipidPC’s active community of PC enthusiasts. Did you ever expect this kind of success right from the beginning?

TipidPC: To be honest we did expect this but not at this rate and number. We anticipated it to be a community site of a couple hundreds of member but not thousands or more.

Alleba Blog: Can you clue us in on how much traffic you get per day in terms of unique visitors and pageviews?

TipidPC: Average daily hits is approximately at 2.5M per day and average daily pageviews is approximately at 50M per day.

Alleba Blog: Initially, was it difficult for you to approach PC merchants and convince them to sell their products on TipidPC?

TipidPC: At first we did have a hard time but with the success of TipidPC, PC merchants are currently utilizing our site for their business due to high traffic and high page views. They have considered TPC as part of their marketing arm to promote new products in their stores. To be honest we haven’t tracked all the PC merchants utilizing our site.

Alleba Blog: Do you have any future plans to further expand your reach in the Philippines, or do you have new ventures in the works?

TipidPC: We have something currently brewing, just watch out for the official announcement in the site.

Alleba Blog: Building and maintaining an online community is tough. Any tips or advice you can give to others?

TipidPC: I guess the best advice I can give you is that if you value your community members you will have a successful community.

Alleba Blog: Thanks for participating in this interview Hermann!

TipidPC: I hope I have appropriately answered your questions. Thank you for patronizing our site and keep on TPCing!

On the web: TipidPC.com

21 comments

  1. Hi Hermann,

    I hope to hear from you before or when that “brewing” project comes out (question #8)! Hehehe.

  2. TPC???
    …you can’t go there if your Internet provider’s IP was already blocked…too many bugs to deal with “ANOTHER BREWING” thing…handle the errors first before coming with another “SURPRISE” or SHOCK!
    …The people behind TPC were very “HYPOCRITES”…they don’t use pirated stuff or even imitation..”YEAH RIGHT?!”…in the philippines…try doing that…and you’ll end up eating your ORIGINAL stuff…

  3. why are the modz at TPC instantly lock threads that mention about or make links to PCT (pc-tipid.com)?

  4. Kung ako may ari ng tpc malamang yan din ang gawin ko. Dami ko ding natanggap na spam pm sa pct. eh sa lahat pa naman, asar ko sa mga taong mahilig sa madaliang pagsikat, ayaw mag trabaho at di lumalaban ng parehas.

    kaso taga bisita lang ako ng site nila.

  5. Teka!! bakit wala ang pangalan ko sa core team?! mali to!
    please paki-edit nga to! isa itong kabal-balan kung wala ang pangalan ko sa core team!!

    Pareng ReB paki sabi nga sa kanila na core team din ako!

  6. Hindi naman Tipidpc kayo, napamahal pa nga ako kasi ang iba dito nagtitinda ng bulok na, after warranty period sira na

  7. Then ako na nalugi ako pa na BAN sa site nila huhuhuhu wala na talagang justice sa mundo na eto kundi sa may pera lang.

  8. Forbidden
    You don’t have permission to access /itemsearch.php on this server.

    Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.

    Eto na lumalabas sa TPC ing nyo….huhuhuhu

  9. first of all i would like to thanks TPC Team for having this site. Honestly its ok for me maganda, at minsan makakhanap ka ng new friends, but you must be a wise buyer, good luck to all of you guys!!!!

  10. honestly tpc is a good site for pc enthusiasts ,kaya lang meron pa rin seller na mababaw ang understanding or perspective when it comes to selling pc products.

    go tpc.

  11. TPC helps me a lot..

    Believe it or not, more than 90% of my internet life was in TPC..

    In any aspect of transaction, the best word is TEST.

  12. bagong handle ko ito sa TPC…pasilip-silip lang naman ako sa TPC mula pang ilang taon..he2x.Lately,nag comment ako sa mga attitude ng moderators doon,instantly suspended ako ni CCL2003..ha..ha out-of-topic daw ako.Sabay bura sa posted comment ko (ang rason nito sa tingin ko ay”hindi dapat pagpestahan ang mga negative comment patungkol sa site ng TPC”.
    Ma traffic na sa site ng TPC kaya mga ipokrito na ang mga admin at mods doon.

  13. that is expected (mods of tpc) after a small and humble to the big and mighty the tpc mods becomes more arrogant … masyado lumalaki ang ulo at tiwala sa sarili..
    lalo na “humvee02” na yan

  14. ang masasabi ko lang sa TPC medyo nananamantala na yung ibang mga merchants specially sa mga buyer na tumitingin lang sa merchant price na kung minsan mas mataas pa o higit na mataas kaysa sa price sa mga store sa labas.. at kung minsan talagang super taas if you compare it.

    pero marami rin namang talagang masasabi ko na TipidPC ang mga item…

    one more think is yung mga scammer.. dami na ring scammer sa TPC, alam ko yun dahil isa ako sa biktima..hehe..

    anyway GO lang TPC kahit pasilip silip na lang ako..^_+

  15. nice info…been wanting to know the people behind TPC success… for others to learn or get inspirations from.

    any latest interview or update on the topic, paki post naman… sept 2006 pa kasi ito if i’m not mistaken…

    success stories (people behind, etc.) like these need widest circulations…

    sana may bagong interviews ulit…

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