how a car marketplace website built an audience of millions

UK-based online car marketplace CarWow has built a regular audience of tens of millions with content.

Watch our full discussion video, or read the full analysis below.

online car marketplace

Started in 2011, Carwow is an online car buy/sell platform founded by James Hind, Alexandra Margolis and David Santoro.

It was originally founded as a car research site, featuring information, statistics, expert reviews and more.

After multiple evolutions and rounds of investment since its inception, Carwow has now expanded it's services to new cars and second hand car marketplace.

Carwow is now operating at in the UK, Span and Germany generating yearly revenue of $50+ million pounds.

From the Carwow website;

Over 12M customers have used Carwow to buy or sell their car. Last year (2024) we grew over 50% with nearly £3 billion worth of cars bought on our site, while £1.8 billion of cars were listed for sale through our Sell My Car service.

cars are kind of a big deal

In the world of automotive content, the possibilities are endless. With global audiences at scale for even the most niche topics, it is arguably the largest content category in the world outside of sports and the weather.

With scale comes competition. Since the invention of the car, there's been car content. The worlds first car magazine, Autocar from the UK, was first published in 1895, and the Michelin motoring travel guide first published in 1900.

With over a century of car related content on a global scale, the content strategy for a new entrant is as important as any. In some ways, it simplifies the conversation.

Make something that people want to engage with, or don't bother.

carwow gets moving with Mat Watson

Carwow CEO & founder James Hind approached experienced car journalist and Youtube presenter Mat Watson, to expand and build the brand with video.

While Watson was already building a substantial audience at car channel Carbuy, Hind was able to convince Watson to come to the up and coming challenger brand.

A key part of Hind's offer to Watson was creative and operational freedom.

Watch Mat's first video for Carwow from 2009, pitching a new type of car content;

Carwow now

Carwow is one of the most viewed car content brands on the planet.

The main Carwow channel currently has 10.2 millions subscribers, plus another 4-5 million on their other Youtube channels, currently non-English version of their videos.

Total video views for the main Carwow channel as of Monday 14 April = 4.6 billion views.

For comparison, the main Top Gear Youtube channel currently has 9.28 million subscribers and 4.1 billion total views.

strategy + people + execution

The strategic alignment of Carwow and their star presenter is the foundational block that underpins the entire initiative.

While Mat Watson is face and should receive a massive amount of the credit for building this content empire, the foresight of founder James Hind should not be forgotten. To craft, invest and execute this level of content strategy at scale would be impressive today, let alone a decade ago when first conceived.

Watson's fundamental understanding that online video is about engagement and engagement only, is the key knowledge that so many brands are lacking.

Stop making videos, start making content.

#deathtostock

Reference - this excellent interview with Mat Watson by Imran Arshad on his podcast The Journey Podcast