After a year of testing its e-commerce operations, Builk Asia’s Builk.com launched last week as a portal where construction companies in Thailand and other Asian countries can buy steel and other construction materials and products.

Builk.com provides access to some 50,000 SKUs from several Thailand-based construction industry suppliers, including Millcon Steel, Siam Cement Group and Diamond Building Products. It says its base of buyers is comprised of about 15,000 marketplace members, including some 10,000 construction contractors and 5,000 resellers of construction materials. While operating mostly in Thailand, Builk.com also serves customers in four other Asian countries: Indonesia, Myanmar, Laos and Malaysia.

Builk.com provides content in the English and Indonesian languages as well as the Thai language. It also provides an online forum where site visitors can exchange comments with construction companies that have used Builk’s services.

Thailand-based Builk Asia launched as a company in 2010, providing free Internet-based construction project management software to steel industry contractors and generating its revenue through steel industry ads on Builk.com, the company says on its website. It says it now intends to also generate revenue from hosting an e-commerce marketplace, but doesn’t provide information on how it will charge marketplace fees.

Builk is working with several companies to provide such marketplace services as online payments with Thailand-based Kasikornbank, or KBank; and fulfillment services with steel provider Millcon Streel.

Builk Asia is backed by Longkong Studio, which owns 90% of the business, according to a report in The Nation, a Thailand newspaper.

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