A Marketplace for Malaysian Students in Korea

Inspiration

The inspiration came from our own frustration as Malaysian students in Korea. When we first arrived, we needed simple things: a desk, kitchenware, or a winter coat. But instead of finding a dedicated marketplace, we were forced to juggle between Google Forms, Telegram groups, and Instagram accounts.

This made second-hand buying and selling:

Time-consuming — posts get buried quickly.

Risky — scams and unfair pricing are possible.

Confusing — no clear categories or filters.

We realized:

Student Life + Limited Budget + No Marketplace = Stress & Wasted Time

So, we asked ourselves: Why not build a trusted marketplace, designed specifically for students like us?

What We Learned

Through this project, we learned that building a successful platform is more than writing code. It requires:

Empathy: Understanding how students search, buy, and sell.

UI/UX thinking: First-time users need guides, not just buttons.

Cultural inclusivity: Students come from different language backgrounds.

Trust mechanisms: A marketplace lives or dies by fairness and transparency.

We also gained technical skills in:

Full-stack development (frontend, backend, database).

APIs for multilingual translation.

Data analytics to provide sellers insights.

Gamification design for user engagement.

How We Built It

We designed and developed a web-based marketplace where:

Sellers can upload listings with photos, prices, and item details.

Buyers can search with filters and categories instead of scrolling endlessly.

Sold items are automatically updated to avoid clutter.

Unique Features:

• Multilanguage Translation (English, Korean, Chinese, Malay—more to come).

• User-Friendly Guides for first-time buyers and sellers.

• Community Moderation for fairness and safety.

• Leaderboard Gamification: top users earn coupons and deals.

-Auction & Bidding System: competitive but transparent sales.

• Review Section: buyers can rate sellers.

-Item Analytics: track views, wishlist count, and demand trends.

Mathematically, we aimed to minimize friction:

Marketplace Efficiency = Successful Transactions / Time + Confusion + Risk

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Challenges We Faced

Fragmented starting point: Students were used to Telegram & Instagram, so we had to map how to migrate them.

Multilingual issues: Translating casual product names (like “cheap but good rice cooker”) accurately was tricky.

Trust & moderation: Designing fair rules without making it too strict.

Time constraints: Prioritizing the most important features within the hackathon timeline.

Despite these, we managed to deliver a working prototype with the core features live.

Impact and Future Potential

Based on the demo previously, With this platform, we’re not just solving the frustration of buying and selling—we’re building efficiency and trust in our student community. Sellers save time and reach more buyers, while buyers finally get a clear, organized marketplace instead of digging through endless messages and posts.

But looking forward, we also see the potential to grow beyond just Malaysians. We can develop and extend it to serve international students from different cultural backgrounds and nationalities across Korea—who all face the same challenges when buying and selling second-hand items. So what starts as a small community marketplace can scale into a trusted, multicultural platform that supports student life and sustainability in Korea.

Hackathon Theme Connection + Closing

This ties directly into the theme of this hackathon: connectivity between student communities. Our project isn’t just about buying and selling—it’s about bringing students closer together, building trust, and supporting those far from home. We’re starting with the Malaysian student community in Korea, helping them connect more easily, share resources, and support one another through a trusted platform. But the vision goes further: we want to expand this to all international students, no matter their cultural background or nationality. Because whether you’re Malaysian, Indonesian, Chinese, or from anywhere else, the challenges of finding affordable, second-hand items are the same. So in conclusion, our project is more than a marketplace—it’s about enhancing student connections, starting with Malaysians in Korea, and growing into a supportive, sustainable, multicultural community.

Built With

• chatandbuild