OLX

Short Bio

• The company was co founded in March 2006 by internet entrepreneurs Fabrice Grinda & Alec Oxenford.

• OLX (On Line eXchange) is the next generation of free online classifieds.

HISTORY

(OLX)

• Launched in Nigeria

• Invested in "Web 2.0" features
• Growth in the Philippines; attributed to its partnership with Friendster.

• Starts to sell priority space for premium listings in India
• More than three million sellers and buyers in Nigeria
• Merger between OLX and Ayos Dito in the Philippines

2012

• 60% of the online classified market share in India

• A majority of the company was acquired by the South African media group Naspers

2008

2015

• Made an investment Chinese classifieds site in Edeng.cn.

2013

2010

2007

2016

2014

2011

• In Kenya, more than 10,000 farmers used OLX to sell their produce and livestock

• Began offering programmatic advertising in Brazil

• About 72% of all used cars sold monthly in India were from OLX

• Aggressive advertisement campaigns in India.

• Philippine classified ads site Sulit rebranded as OLX

• About 54% of OLX's global traffic, then 240 million unique monthly visits, came from mobile

2006

2009

• Partnered with Hi5, a social network which at the time had 60 million users

• Company was founded

• Acquired Mundoanuncio.com, a classifieds site targeting the Hispanic market

OLX Today

OLX is one of the world's biggest free classifieds that operates in 106 countries and has more than 100 million global visitors every month. It has its major operations in India, Brazil, Pakistan, Poland[1], Portugal and Ukraine as a classifieds ads comapny.

Although the company was originally funded by U.S. venture capital firms, including Nexus Venture Partners, The Founder Fund, DN Capital, General Catalyst Partners and Bessemer Venture Partners, as of 2014, 95% of the company has been acquired by Naspers, a South African Media Group.

Why?

OLX exists to improve people’s lives by bringing them together for win-win exchanges. Purpose, for us, is everything. To know we’re making a difference.

How?

By providing mobile and digital local market places we empower people everywhere to buy, sell or exchange their used goods and services.

What?

We believe in a world where everyone wins.

Market Coverage

Business Volume

• As of 2014, OLX had 11 billion page views, 200 million monthly active users, 25 million listings, and 8.5 million transactions per month

• Same year, OLX adopted a "Martian approach" to international expansion, launching in India, the largest available market, rather than in the United States

• In India alone OLX generates more than 1.5 billion monthly page views yearly with 72% of the total used cars sales happening on OLX alone

• In Kenya, more than 10,000 farmers used OLX to sell their produce and livestock in 2016

• In Nigeria, OLX had more than three million sellers and buyers in the country by 2015

Competitive Advantage

• First mover in online classifieds ad industry

• Due to offline payment methods there is no need to

deal with varying payment infrastructure availability

in each of its markets

• Easily designable rich ads free of cost

Turning Point

• In 2009, OLX partnered with hi5 which, at that time, had 60 million users

• In 2011, OLX began to agressively advertise in India which increased their monthly paid view

• In 2014 Naspers consolidated its online classifieds operation and rebranded them as OLX

Business Strategy (OLX)

Start a website where users can buy and sell their products

Spend lot of money on marketing to ensure high traffic and large number of listings

Create the website to be the go to destination for such a business

Once the listings are large enough, then earn revenue through two sources

Lastly, just like any website with large traffic, they also aim to generate money from ad revenue

Ask users to pay in order to get their listings on top of the page. Similar to what Google does in its adwords. If you want to be on top of the page you have to pay i.e. Premium Listings.

The inflow is purchase of premium services by sellers. Customers willingness to pay increases with the websites ability to generate results and find buyers for the seller.

The outflow of cash is purely marketing, most cash is used to bring customers to their website, both buyers and sellers.