Could look at introducing paid listings this financial year, says Batra of OLX India

Since the time OLX India entered the online classified market, the whole space has undergone a significant change. The company has played a key role in transforming and growing the market over the years. In an interaction with Business Today's Manu Kaushik, the company's CEO Amarjit Singh Batra discusses OLX India's future plans.

Q- How has the online classified market evolved in recent years?

A- When OLX entered the online classifieds market in India, the idea of selling and buying from unknown people was unheard of. The online classifieds industry in India was very vertical in nature at that time. OLX created and built the market for consumer-to-consumer (C2C) classifieds in India, and that helped in giving an unprecedented direction to the online classifieds market in the country. Secondly, the market has evolved in terms of the categories traded through classifieds. The business-to-consumer (B2C) marketplaces for categories such as jobs and real estate were more prevalent before OLX India entered the space. With OLX, people have for the first time moved beyond the categories of jobs, real estate and services to use online classifieds for selling and buying their stuff such as furniture, mobile phones, cars, etc without any mediation from middlemen.

Q- What's the future of online classified market in India?

A- With surging consumer aspirations and people acquiring more, the relevance of online classifieds will only increase. The increasing mobile penetration will make online classifieds more accessible and convenient to use in the coming years. At OLX, approximately 85 per cent of the traffic comes from mobile right now. The Consumer Research on Used-Goods and Selling Trends (CRUST), OLX's annual survey on the used goods market, reveals that used goods worth Rs 56,200 crore are lying idle just in urban India. If you take the entire country into account, then this number will be even bigger. CRUST also revealed that online selling of used goods has increased by three times and online buying of used goods has gone up by two times in the last one year. All these facts imply the future potential of the online classifieds market in India.

Q- What has been the global trend with classified markets?

A- The global popularity and success of classifieds has shown that it is a necessity for every
country. This is the reason why despite technological changes, such a fluid transition has happened from print to online classifieds. The classifieds is a winner-take-it-all business. The global trend has been that there is one clear market leader in every country. If you look at most western markets, they have one dominant classifieds player. OLX took a conscious call to focus on emerging markets and today we are the market leader in 25 emerging markets, including India. Online classifieds is also a habit-driven market. Once people get used to using classifieds and a particular platform, it becomes a part of their everyday life.

Q- Can you share your current market share in the online classifieds market? What kind of traffic do you generate on a daily or monthly basis?

A- OLX is the C2C marketplace leader in India with 80 per cent market share in this category. We get 1.8 billion page-views a month, as on February 2015.

Q- How many used cars are sold through OLX per month?

A- OLX's vehicle category gets 850 million page views every month with 45 million visits per month. There are more than half-a-million people posting ads for used vehicles every month on OLX. On an average, a seller receives an estimated 14 responses within the first two days of posting an ad with pictures for a vehicle. OLX's brand-awareness in Auto is almost seven times the number two horizontal classifieds player in India and five times that of the major vertical classifieds for used cars in the country.

Q- You have listings of only used products. Do you plan to list new products as well?

A- OLX is the leader in C2C marketplace for used goods and will continue to grow this category. There are no plans to focus on anything outside this space.

Q- What's your business model? When will you start monetising?

A- We are creating a local marketplace across India. Globally, the business model of classifieds is based on premium listings and display ads. This is a proven business model worldwide for revenue generation. In this financial year, we could be looking at introducing paid listings.

Q- What are your biggest differentiators?

A- Our relentless focus on building a C2C marketplace distinguishes us from other major online classifieds players. Our C2C leadership has been recognised externally as well by third-party reports and data. An independent research-based report by leading global financial firm Morgan Stanley published in February 2015 states that "OLX is a market leader within C2C eCommerce by a wide margin". Several other platforms in the country, either category-focused or cross-category, are still very vertical in their proposition and offerings. We have, on the other hand, worked hard to ensure that people get a pure C2C experience without any mediation from OLX and middlemen. To build a democratic C2C platform, we have kept all ad content on the platform 100 per cent user-generated. OLX never lists on behalf of its users unlike some other players. We want people to experience the benefits of classifieds, which cannot happen if you list on behalf of the user.

Q- What is your biggest challenge?

A- Our biggest challenge would be that as an online platform we are entirely dependent on internet penetration to enhance our business. The good news is that India is making rapid advances in the same. Other classifieds sites calling our users and copying our ad content is also a challenge.  

Q- Selling old (used) goods is a mindset issue with Indians. How have you tackled this particular issue?

A- A big reason why people used to have barriers against buying and selling of used goods was because they were not aware of the value hidden in their used items. Also, they did not have a place where they could easily liquidate these items. This changed when OLX entered the space. People took to OLX spontaneously. The word-of-mouth publicity and positive experiences of people on the platform helped the matter. We will continue to focus on providing superior user experience as that is the best way to break down the barriers.