industry online retail consumer electronics founded 2006 founder ruslan kogan headquarters melbourne australia area served australia new zealand united states key people ceo ruslan kogan executive director david shafer products high definition televisions tablet computers smartphones digital cameras home appliances digital radios pvrs netbooks blu ray disc players video cameras e book readers website www.kogan.com kogan.com is the largest online department store in australia selling tens of thousands of products through its online direct to customer store . 1 the company founded in 2006 by ruslan kogan . the company competes on price by selling electronics home appliances and groceries 2 direct to consumers through kogan.com . 3 kogan achieved 3 million in its third year 4 followed by 8 million in the fourth 5 22 million in the fifth 6 70 million in the sixth 7 and over 200 million in the seventh year . 8 kogan is projected to produce more than a 350 million in fiscal 2014 and has been growing at between 200 % and 300 % per year since its 2006 inception . 9 the wall street journal speculates kogan is worth over 400m . 9 in march 2016 kogan.com acquired dick smith holdings s online business.the physical retail stores have been shut down with the dick smith brand transitioned to an online only consumer electronics store . in july 2016 kogan was floated on the australian stock exchange . contents 1 history 2 awards 3 liveprice 4 controversies 4.1 2009 advertising controversy 4.2 harvey norman 4.3 jb hi fi 4.4 australian government set top box scheme 4.5 uk cable con 4.6 divorce from traditional retail 4.7 apple vs. samsung 4.8 microsoft internet explorer 7 tax 4.9 misleading ebay sale promotion 5 products 6 kogan financial results 7 kogan pantry 8 kogan exclusive brands 9 kogan mobile 9.1 vodafone 9.2 telstra ispone 10 references 11 external links history edit kogan.com was established in 2006 by ruslan kogan in his parent s garage . 10 he started with a website offering lcd televisions that would be assembled for him in chinese factories . 11 in october 2010 ruslan kogan announced that kogan.com would expand to the uk . 12 the company officially entered the uk market on 15 november 13 with a range of led tvs and gps units . 14 15 the expansion makes kogan the only australian owned international consumer electronics brand . 16 on 14 september 2011 kogan began shipping products from the company s hong kong operation to customers all around the world . 17 bypassing wholesalers distributors and retailers in this way enabled the company to offer products by brands including apple canon nikon samsung motorola and more at low prices . 18 19 on 15 march 2016 kogan.com acquired dick smith holding s online business . 20 with the physical retail stores shut down the dick smith brand transitioned to an online only consumer electronics store . 21 on 7 july 2016 kogan.com floated on the australian stock exchange . 22 awards edit the company has won the following awards brw 2011 fast 100 at rank 27 ranking the fastest growing companies in australia in any sector and any size . 23 brw 2010 fast 100 at rank 15 ranking the fastest growing companies in australia in any sector and any size . 24 brw 2010 fast starters list at rank 17 . 25 26 brw named kogan the 15th fastest growing company in australia with 106.74 % growth . 24 australian retailer s association retail innovator of the year 2010 27 brw 2009 fast starters list at rank 37 28 power retail s top 100 online retailers of 2014 at rank 3 . 29 liveprice edit on 1 december 2010 30 kogan announced the launch of liveprice an invention that allows consumers to buy a product before it is manufactured for a discounted price . 31 32 33 34 after launching liveprice in australia kogan sold nearly 330 000 worth of products using the new pricing system in 24 hours . 35 after being operational in australia for less than three weeks liveprice had resulted in over 370 000 of price deductions across the entire range . 36 liveprice has a patent pending . 37 controversies edit 2009 advertising controversy edit in april 2009 the company was ordered by the australian competition and consumer commission accc to modify its advertising after it was accused of possible misleading conduct . the accc stated that price comparisons in the retailer s advertisements in the herald sun newspaper and on its website may have misled customers and the accc s chairman samuel said the advertisements may have breached sections of the trade practices act 1974 . in response kogan.com agreed that it would not advertise its products at a discount unless that product had been advertised for sale at a higher price that it would implement a trade practices law compliance program and that it would not make representations about the savings available to consumers unless the basis by which those savings are calculated was also stated . 38 harvey norman edit in august 2010 kogan began a public dispute with gerry harvey co founder of well known australian retailer harvey norman . 39 the argument concerned the future of consumer electronics retailing in australia and in particular whether australians should shop online or in a bricks and mortar retailer . 39 40 kogan challenged harvey to a tv debate which he declined . 41 kogan claimed harvey chickened out 42 causing harvey to respond by calling kogan a con . 39 kogan responded with two satirical advertisements criticising harvey norman . 43 kogan renewed the dispute in november 2010 criticising harvey norman s purchase of clive peeters . 44 the controversy continued into december when harvey announced plans to follow myer and open up an online store based in china to avoid gst and cut costs 45 causing kogan to claim that harvey norman and myer were posturing to force the government to change import laws and that their china based stores were a hoax . 46 kogan stated that if harvey norman and myer succeeded in opening their china based online stores for three months he would place a prominent link on kogan.com.au advertising his rival s store . 47 kogan also claimed that harvey norman was full of it 48 and published an article lamenting the australian business scene s focus on regulation rather than innovation . 49 in july 2011 kogan came to the public defence of harvey when he came under fire for harvey norman s alleged logging practices . 50 kogan stated like him or hate him gerry harvey is not a criminal he should not be singled out for some supposed moral crime simply because he has complied with the law and has sought australian timber to use in his furniture . 51 jb hi fi edit in march 2011 kogan argued that some of australia s biggest retailers were overly reliant upon the success of apple claiming that 30 % of australian retailer jb hi fi s revenue in 2010 had come from apple or apple related products . 52 terry smart ceo of jb hi fi responded by saying that figure is not even close to reality . we don t have a big enough supply that represents such a substantial part of the business . 53 kogan responded by challenging smart to a one million dollar bet that jb hi fi would not stock apple hardware by 14 march 2014 . 54 the deed for the bet is still available online though it has not been accepted . 55 kogan also began giving away free hdmi cables to anyone who had bought a tv from jb hi fi in 2011 56 accusing jb of trying to trick people into thinking they need a 200 cable after buying a full hd tv . 57 in october 2011 kogan took out a full page ad in australia s biggest newspaper calling for jb hi fi to change their slogan always cheapest prices . 58 jb hi fi did not respond to the challenge . 59 australian government set top box scheme edit in may 2011 the australian government announced a plan to provide television set top boxes to pensioners free of charge . 60 kogan and other leading retailers criticised the scheme for spending too much money . in 2011 the program had an estimated total cost of 308 million with each installation costing over 350 . 61 kogan said his company could deliver it for 50 million . 62 in february 2012 new figures revealed that the cost per installation had risen to 698 63 prompting kogan to make further public statements attacking the government s inefficiency in spending . 64 65 66 67 however it was later clarified by the federal government that these figures were falsely reported by the australian newspaper and that installations ranged from 158.00 to 492.00 . 68 it was revealed on 8 february 2012 during parliamentary question time that kogan.com had tendered for the scheme to roll out set top boxes for new south wales which commenced in june 2012 . 69 uk cable con edit in july 2011 kogan launched its cut the cable con campaign in britain . 70 the campaign targeted john lewis and currys criticising the way that such retailers attempt to sell expensive cables with their new televisions and computers and accusing them of a campaign of deliberate misinformation with regard to this issue . 71 kogan.com began giving away cables free of charge with every television purchased . 72 john lewis and currys defended the practice of charging for cables by pointing out the various features of their cables . 73 kogan responded by stating i think it s a bit misleading what they ve said . when it comes to durability it s an hdmi cable that you ll use to connect your tv to a blu ray player or a playstation or another device . you re not using it as a skipping rope or to go rock climbing with . 74 divorce from traditional retail edit in august 2011 kogan announced his desire for online retailers to be viewed separately from traditional retail by economists stating that if we have been grouped with traditional retailers then we want a divorce 75 and arguing that all of the innovation and growth is in online rather than bricks and mortar retail . 76 business magazine brw noted the similarity of the divorce to a campaign by nab . 77 apple vs. samsung edit when kogan began selling the samsung galaxy tab 10.1 in september 2011 apple demanded that the company immediately stop selling the product because of an ongoing patent dispute with samsung . 78 apple also demanded full details of kogan s suppliers . kogan agreed to stop selling the product until the patent dispute was resolved but refused to disclose any further information . 78 the federal court overturned the injunction on the samsung galaxy tab 10.1 on 30 november 2011 79 and kogan began selling the product again soon after . 80 microsoft internet explorer 7 tax edit on 13 june 2012 kogan introduced a microsoft internet explorer 7 tax which charged any user shopping at the site from ie7 an extra 6.8 % 0.1 % for every month the browser had been on the market . 81 kogan explained that he had decided to charge the tax because the amount of work and effort involved in making our website look normal on ie7 equalled the combined time of designing for chrome safari and firefox . 82 kogan accepted that it was unlikely that anyone would actually pay the charges stating that the goal of the campaign was to encourage users to download a more up to date version of internet explorer or a different browser . 82 the tax was the most talked about topic on