OLX-next generation online classifieds site in India

This entry is being reposted from my personal blog.

(This review is based on interactions I had with the founders of OLX, an international online classifieds and auctions website. OLX is launching the Indian edition of its website and is looking to customize it to the Indian context through reviews/ user feedback received from Indian bloggers)

OLX stands for ‘OnLine Exchange‘ and it is positioned as the ‘next generation online classifieds and auctions website‘. The company has offices in NY and Buenos Aires. It wants to be a significant player in the online ecommerce space in the emerging markets of the world (as is apparent from country specific websites that are launching – India, Mexico, South Africa, New Zealand, Hong Kong etc).

OLX has been co-founded by two successful international tech entrepreneurs, Fabrice Grinda & Alec Oxenford. Between them, they have founded successful web businesses like Zingy.com, the largest mobile Media Company in the Americas and DeRemate.com, a leading online auction site in Latin America. Alec also has an Indian connection, as he was an early stage investor in India’s leading ecommerce site, Bazzee.com (he has since exited from that venture).

The Indian online classifieds space is characterized by a bunch of mediocre, look-alike websites, none of which have critical mass and hence there is no default choice. Clearly, some innovation is needed to jazz up this moribund space. So when I became aware of an international website, promoted by successful serial (ecommerce) entrepreneurs, launching a ‘next generation’ classifieds website in India, I decided to check them out.

I was intrigued by the term ‘next generation…’, so that was my first query to Alex. His answer indicated that OLX plans to differentiate itself from its competitors through a slew of innovative features (which have never before been attempted in the classifieds space). Here’s a sampler from that list

- a city, neighborhood and zip code database to cover the entire country
- a distance field showing postings within a certain range of your zip code
- ability to post items in virtual worlds (e.g. SecondLife)(sounds interesting)
- mobile version of the site
- ability to post listings and view the site in any language in any country

OLX’s website allows classified listings for jobs, housing, goods and services, personals, events and community, plus a wide variety of discussion forums. The site is completely free to use. OLX’s eventual business model will be based on revenues generated through (non-intrusive) contextual internet advertising, once the site gains traction and has a dedicated user base.

Having gone through their site (currently in beta), here are a few spontaneous suggestions from my side

- The categorization structure on their current site may need to be better aligned to the Indian context; one of the reasons why the Craigslist website is a non-starter in India is the sheer lack of relevance of their categorization structure to an Indian audience
- It makes sense to do a 80:20 analysis of Indian cities and concentrate only on top 10-15 cities (at least initially) rather than spreading out all across (since top 10 cities contribute to 85% of online traffic)

On the whole, OLX believes that it has the wherewithal to stand out from the rest of the crowd through a combination of a much better product backed up by smart viral marketing, keyword advertising, affiliate management, word of mouth, partnerships with newspapers and portals, effective PR and mobile distribution.

What I liked about OLX is the confidence they have in their product. I am also impressed with the gameplan they have in getting the word out about their product (this review is proof of that). These are novel developments in the Indian consumer internet space and Indian website creators could possibly take a leaf out of their proactive approach.

So my seat belts are fastened in anticipation of OLX’s zoooooooming launch. I wish them a happy landing in the Indian internet space.