Digital disruption of traditional ocean shipping has set sail.
The Wall Street Journal cites a report by British research firm Transport Intelligence identifying Shippabo as being among startups shaking up land-to-ocean shipping—“a $160 billion global business that hasn’t kept up with contemporary communications.”
Tech in Asia describes the Los Angeles CA-based technology startup Shippabo as being like an “Expedia” for customers of ocean freight shipping, but providing a much broader range of services than price quotes and comparisons. According to this article:
Shippabo’s service is designed like a sort of Expedia for container ships—it collects pricing data for comparison, automates documents for filing, and allows users to track their shipments to arrival. Shippabo also helps users manage customs clearance, making it easier to ship a 40-foot container of T-shirts across the Pacific than it is to get through security at some airports.
Co-founded by John Lien, Nina Luu, Sam Luu, and Wes Chien, Shippabo started in Los Angeles, but is fixated on Asia. They have every reason to be optimistic about their current location, too; ships that make berth at the Port of Los Angeles handle more than US $200 billion in trade with Asia each year. With carriers like Maersk and American President Lines, Shippabo could see rapid expansion in its user base.
Nina Luu, chief executive officer, said customers can compare ocean freight cost, select an ocean container shipping company, select LCL (less than container load) shipping, choose a shipping date, handle customs entries, and book immediately using Shippabo’s secure, web-based application.
“We believe that our customers want options allowing them to make the best choices for their companies,” Luu said. She adds that one of Shippabo’s goals is to make ocean shipping less stressful and easier to manage.
Luu reports that the service has gained hundreds of import and export shipping clients since its beta launch, which took only three months.
Before helping to create Shippabo, Luu was an entrepreneur and importer who also specialized in business-to-business marketing.
Shippabo can be contacted by email at [email protected] or at www.shippabo.com.
