OLX.in Free India Classifieds - An Interview.

TopicBean had the pleasure of interviewing Mr. Amarjit Batra, Country Manager of OLX.in. Is OLX.in India’s answer to Craigslist? Read on to find out.

1. How did OLX come into being? What difficulties did you face in getting it going?

OLX was co-founded in March 2006 by Internet entrepreneurs Fabrice Grinda and Alec Oxenford. Fabrice previously founded Zingy, a mobile ringtones company that sold to For-Side for $80 million in May 2004. Alec previously founded DeRemate, a leading online auction website in Latin America. DeRemate sold to MercadoLibre.com, an eBay affiliate, in November 2005. OLX was formed with the purpose of creating the world’s largest free classifieds marketplace where users can buy, sell, trade or exchange products and services within their city across multiple categories.

The difficulties were typical of what’s in web startup – getting the right team in place, getting a bug free product off the ground; expand in the right markets etc. OLX, being an ambitious project of creating the largest classifieds site in the world also had to go through a lot of skepticism. Since then, we have expanded to 90 countries and 39 languages and are a leading classifieds site in about 7 to 8 markets.

2. How big is the company can you share some numbers with our audience?

OLX has over 70 million unique visitors per month and 500 million page views per month.
Almost 2 million new ads are posted monthly on OLX. OLX has raised $28.5 million in funding since March, 2006. OLX has offices spread over the globe with 125 employees working out of New York, Buenos Aires, Beijing, Moscow and India

3. How do you monetize OLX?

We are having text ads (currently provided by Google) as the only monetization option. These ads are displayed on our listings result pages and the individual classified ad pages. OLX core site will always be 100% free. However we have launched ‘Featured Listings’ in few countries that allows users to get prominent placement on the site.Our mobile site (http://m.OLX.in) is also completely free for users. The mobile site has a banner or text ad on top and bottom of each page and is monetized through ad networks.

4. What software and hardware drive the website?

OLX is on LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) running on Linux boxes

5. What content in OLX.in is specific to India compared to OLX.com?

OLX is a city based classifieds site. OLX.in is the India site and all the content on www.OLX.in pertains to India. Within OLX.in, there are individual city sites and a user can search within a city or nationwide. OLX.in is present in all key cities in India and includes the Tier I, Tier II and Tier III cities. We have localization of OLX.in in Hindi language and have a ‘matrimonial’ category that is unique to India. OLX.com is our site specific for USA and all the content on this site is localized for the US market.

6. What differentiates OLX from other similar products on the internet?

First of all, we are a free site. Yes 100% free! And we want to keep our core site free forever. Our major difference with vertical category sites are that we are present in many categories- Jobs, Real Estate, Vehicles, Matrimonial (only in India), For Sale, Services, Classes, and Community. Being a local site, we are today present in all major cities in India, whereas the rest of the sites are focusing on few cities only. The other key differentiating factor is a user friendly mobile version of the site http://m.OLX.in on which one can do everything that can be done on the web version. We are also present in other languages like Hindi ( http://www.OLX.in/hi/ ) that gives us a wider reach.

Being a Web2.0 product, users can Easily design rich colorful listings with pictures and videos and display their listings on their social networking profile (Facebook, Myspace, etc.). Unlike others, we are a global classifieds site network with a local presence in India. Being present in 89 countries and 39 languages gives us an international reach and we do continuous improvements on our product and features.

7. Free classified sites have a tough time with Spam ads and junk listings on the website and hence sometimes end up with unwanted content. What security measures does OLX have in place to prevent this?

We have certain tools and filters to check for Spams and Scams. Our multilingual dedicated customer support team manually screens listings and deletes those with suspect content. We also have automated tools to detect Spams and Scams. We blacklist keywords, IP addresses, countries etc. and our customer team is vigilant 24/7 to tackle such issues. Over all 60% to 70% of postings on OLX are deleted in the process to keep the site clean and free from spam. In addition, we urge our users to flag a prohibitive listing and this messaging is provided at key user touch points.

8. Classified sections in India are filled with real estate agents whom not everyone is interested in dealing with. How do you propose to segregate the content?

On OLX, you will find many individuals posting ads for products and services that they are offering. In real estate, you will find many home owners posting their properties for lease or sale. There are similar cases in ‘Vehicles’ as well as ‘For Sale’ category. So we provide both the choice of content from brokers as well as content from individuals.

9. How can a user effectively use this classified, do you have any tips to make the best use of OLX.com?

OLX classifieds can be effectively used for both buying and selling activity. As a buyer, I can decide if I am looking for a seller within my city or I am fine with an intercity transaction. I can then zero in on my search efforts - citywide or nationwide. If I am not able to find an item of my choice, I can create a ‘Wanted’ Ad and list the details of the item I am looking for. Or I can create an ‘ Alert’ for specific keywords. As a seller, I can merchandise my listings with multiple photographs or a video of the products being offered. I would definitely provide my mobile number in addition to the email contacts, as the OLX mobile application allows a One –Click-Call on the mobile listed in the Ad.

10. How do "you" like OLX.com and how do "you" use it? Have you purchased anything online from OLX.com? ( Can this be changed to OLX.in, the India site).

Like many OLX users, I like the clutter free experience on OLX and I find browsing on OLX a lot of fun. I particularly like OLX search functionality and the ability to post ads in English as well as Hindi. I had once posted an ad in Hindi for a piece of furniture I wanted to dispose and got some genuine responses within few days. I am also a regular user of the Mobile application http://m.OLX.in and often search for deals. The best part is that I can use the mobile classifieds even I am on the move. One can do everything on the mobile that can be done on the Web. I am on the lookout for car deals and have set some ‘Alerts’ for a particular car model, so that I do not have to go to the site daily. I get an update on my email if that model is listed by somebody.

11. What goes on in the background when someone tries to buy or sell something? Is there any rating system in place for buyers and sellers?

When a seller lists the item on the OLX site, they have the flexibility to let people contact through email only or through phone. The listings appear on the search results for that particular city and category. When a buyer enters the site, he can browse through the categories or city or use specific keywords to search through a search box on the site. A lot of buyers find the listings and the seller through search engines and directly come onto the individual classifieds page. The buyer can send an email to the seller through the site messaging system or contact on phone directly if the seller has listed his numbers on the listing.
Once the buyer and seller get in touch with each other, the negotiation and transaction usually completes offline.

A rating system would not work on a classifieds site as the transaction does not complete online. However, a buyer can comment on the listing of the seller about their experience.

12. What is the next big plan for OLX? What features are you looking to implement to improve the product?

We have now expanded to 90 countries and 39 languages and you will see OLX expanding further to some more countries and new languages. Besides this, we keep on making improvements on the site making it friendlier for our users. We often take feedback from our users on features that they would like to see on OLX. OLX already has many cobrand partners (like Friendster in Philippines and Hindustan Times in India) and this list of partners has been growing every year.

We have also launched “Featured Listings” whereby users can put their ads in an exceptional place for a specific period of time giving increased visibility. This has been launched in select countries including US and will be introducing this tool to other countries. We also launch new categories that have relevance to the local markets and what users ask for.