OLX

OLX
Incorporated
Industry Marketplace classifieds forums
Founded 2006
Founder Fabrice Grinda, Alec Oxenford
Number of locations
 Global
Area served
 Global
Number of employees
 1200
Website www.olx.com

OLX, founded in 2006, is a global online marketplace,[1] operating in 45 countries,[2] and is the largest online classified ads company in India, Brazil and Poland.[1]

Fabrice Grinda and Alec Oxenford founded the company as a Craigslist alternative for the world outside of the United States.[1] South African media group Naspers, acquired a majority of OLX in 2010 and 95% of the company in 2014.[3]

History

The OLX marketplace facilitates buying and selling services and goods such as electronics, furniture, household goods, cars and bikes. OLX had 11 billion page views, 200 million monthly active users, 25 million listings, and 8.5 million transactions per month in 2014.[1]

Payments between buyer and seller are made offline, so OLX does not have to deal with varying payment infrastructure availability in each of its markets.[1] In 2006, OLX acquired Mundoanuncio.com, a classifieds site targeting the Hispanic market and in 2007, OLX made an investment Chinese classifieds site in Edeng.cn.[4] In 2008, OLX's growth in the Philippines was attributed to its partnership with Friendster.[5]

OLX invested in "Web 2.0" features in 2008, such as social network widgets, improved search, Ajax-based editors, interactive maps, and mobile versions.[5]

In 2009, OLX partnered with Hi5, a social network, which at the time had 60 million users. Hi5 implemented OLX features, such as displaying ads and sharing ads with friends, and OLX enabled video, image and mobile features, in 39 languages and 90 countries.[6]

In 2014, CEO Alec Oxenford said that OLX adopted a "Martian approach" to international expansion, launching in India, the largest available market, rather than in the United States.[1] Naspers consolidated its online classified operations in the Philippines, Thailand, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Indonesia and re-branded them as OLX.[3]

The company invested heavily in television advertising. Oxenford said that adoption of the internet by more than three billion people has made television more effective as a driver of traffic to websites or apps than it was during the early dot-com period, when television advertising didn't work well for websites.[1]

Oxenford has said that OLX acted as a “wealth creator” in emerging markets, enabling people to easily monetize their services and possessions.[1]

About 54% of OLX's global traffic, then 240 million unique monthly visits, came from mobile in 2014.[7]

India

The company began to aggressively advertise in India in 2011.[8] OLX said it had 60% of the online classified market share in India in 2013, with 80% of usage on mobile.[7] OLX said 1.5 billion monthly page views were generated from India in 2014.[9] Morgan Stanley called OLX the "undisputed leader in India" in a 2013 report.[9]

OLX became a slang verb for 'selling' in India, in the form of 'OLX Pe Bech De', ' OLX Kar Do' and 'OLX it'.[9] About 90% of listings in India came from used mobile and electronics, used home and household goods, and used cars & bikes.[9] Used cars account for 45% of page views, as of 2015.[10]

In addition to continuing its free listings, OLX said in 2015 it would start to sell priority space for premium listings.[10]

In 2016, OLX said about 72% of all used cars sold monthly in India were from transactions on the site.[11] The number of used car sales on the site in India grew 100 per cent in 2016 from 2015. About 200,000 vehicles with a value of $1 billion are sold monthly on the site compared to 95,000 cars worth $470 million in 2015.[12]

Brazil

OLX and bomnegocio.com, owned by Sweden's Schibsted, combined in 2014 to create the largest classifieds site in Brazil.[13] The company began offering programmatic advertising in 2016, accessing 43 million unique visitors and three billion monthly page views in Brazil.[14]

Kenya

In Kenya, more than 10,000 farmers used OLX to sell their produce and livestock in 2016, especially chicken and cattle, and fresh produce.[15] Traditionally in Kenya, farmers and buyers paid brokers a fee to assist with sales. The transition to online selling enables farmers to earn more by cutting out brokers and reducing transportation costs.[15] The company said it saw the need for the category after it saw farmers listing livestock for sales in its pets category.[16]

Nigeria

OLX, which launched in Nigeria in 2012, said it had more than three million sellers and buyers in the country in 2015.[17] OLX purchased its Nigerian competitor, TradeStable.[18][19]

Philippines

Philippine classified ads site Sulit rebranded as OLX in 2014. The merger in the Philippines between OLX and Ayos Dito redirected Ayos Dito users to OLX as of 2015.[20]

Investors

The company was funded by U.S. venture capital firms, including Nexus Venture Partners, The Founders Fund, DN Capital, General Catalyst Partners, and Bessemer Venture Partners.[4] In 2010, a majority of the company was acquired by the South African media group Naspers,[21] which bought out the existing investors.[4] Prior to the Naspers' investment, OLX had raised $30 million.[4]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Meet OLX, the biggest Web company you've never heard of". Fortune. 2014-10-29. Retrieved 2016-09-23.
  2. ↑ Mander, Benedict (2016-09-19). "Argentina: home to the majority of Latin America's tech unicorns". Financial Times. ISSN 0307-1766. Retrieved 2016-09-27.
  3. 1 2 "Naspers-owned OLX enters 11 new markets". Retrieved 2016-09-23.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Rao, Leena. "Naspers Makes Strategic Investment In Craigslist Competitor OLX". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2016-09-23.
  5. 1 2 Hendrickson, Mark. "Craigslist Competitor OLX Raises $13.5M". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2016-09-23.
  6. ↑ Wauters, Robin. "OLX And hi5 Join Forces For International Expansion Plans". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2016-09-23.
  7. 1 2 KJ, Shashidhar (2015-09-11). "Naspers annual report: 80% of monthly active users of OLX on mobile in India". MediaNama. Retrieved 2016-09-23.
  8. ↑ "Online retail in India: learning to evolve". Retrieved 2016-09-23.
  9. 1 2 3 4 indiainfoline.com. "Naspers-Backed OLX takes No.1 position in emerging markets". Retrieved 2016-09-23.
  10. 1 2 Mishra, Sounak Mitra & Digbijay (2015-02-19). "OLX to start monetising in India". Business Standard India. Retrieved 2016-09-23.
  11. ↑ Bureau, Our (2016-09-23). "72% of used cars sold in a month in India is on OLX". Retrieved 2016-09-23.
  12. ↑ "OLX sees 100% rise in online sale of pre-owned vehicles - The Economic Times". Retrieved 2016-09-23.
  13. ↑ "South African, Norwegian e-commerce rivals bury hatchet in Brazil battle". Reuters. 2014-11-14. Retrieved 2016-09-23.
  14. ↑ "OLX Offers Inventory Programmatically; New Data About Media Habits in Brazil | ExchangeWire.com". www.exchangewire.com. Retrieved 2016-09-23.
  15. 1 2 "More than 10,000 farmers use ads site OLX to sell produce". Retrieved 2016-09-23.
  16. ↑ Ollinga, Michael. "OLX sets up agriculture category to rid sector of middlemen". Retrieved 2016-09-23.
  17. ↑ "OLX claims three million sellers, buyers at third anniversary". Retrieved 2016-09-23.
  18. ↑ "Naspers pulls India into its online web". Business Day Live. Retrieved 2016-09-23.
  19. ↑ Abiodun, Eromosele (2015-04-01). "Nigeria: OLX Expands Platform, Acquires Tradestable". This Day (Lagos). Retrieved 2016-09-23.
  20. ↑ "Tech in Asia - Connecting Asia's startup ecosystem". www.techinasia.com. Retrieved 2016-09-23.
  21. ↑ Perez, Sarah (2015-09-03). "Mobile App Letgo Raises $100 Million From Naspers To Take Over Classifieds In The U.S.". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2016-06-14.
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