OLX to shut offices in Kenya

[Nefertiti]

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Reasons undisclosed - is Masoko crashing them already? Jumia really increased ads after getting wind of Masoko.

Online ads firm OLX to shut down physical office in Kenya, Nigeria
https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/corporate/health/4258458-4295206-8te8rez/index.html

[RV Pundit]

Too much fraud. You cannot have free ad thing in kenya. The crooks will flood with doggy ads. Premium services works. More so pre-paid or pay as you go. The systems that works in kenya or Africa has to realize fraud is MBIG. Very mbig. You need to build robust system that is trustworthy and still cheap.

So Amazon or OLX where you verify and verify and verify and verify and deal with crooks.

[vooke]

Robina,
I suspect their pricing is plain stupid


With such rates, I think small timers are better off ignoring it. They should be charging something like 100/- per week for prime space or something. 800/- for a mere 3 days is overkill for the small guys who form the bulk.

Pundito,
You are on to something. While Jumia pretends to fight fraud, most of their dealers sell junk that barely works. That's the leading sort of complains. Devices that fail too quickly.

I use PayPal regularly. I like it. I bought Kaspersky Internet Security for my phone. Key turned out to have been for French tablets so it failed. Seller offers me refund right away. Any time I have received anything her does not function as intended/advertised I get refunds pap!

Negroes can't get there I swear

[Nefertiti]

vooke Those rates are okay. Merchants who can't afford that are not worth it. Ads on media like Nation print or digital cost much more.

I think the thirst for merchandise lowers the standard for quality and integrity. There ought to be collateral (down payment) equal to 3x the average sale of a merchant. They can borrow the M-pesa agent standard. Proper vetting, deposits, formal certification as an online trader. This way a genuine complaint can lead to consequences. There should be a "CRB" - a central reference - for online traders. They can cooperate or hang together. TRUST SYSTEM is basic. There are even phony apartments on OLX where people get conned

I imagine Masoko and Jumia have most of these covered. At extra cost. The two actually hold stock and do fulfillment. That's serious overhead. Classifieds are not different because they lead to exchange of goods or services. Thin margins will push out some.

[vooke]

vooke Those rates are okay. Merchants who can't afford that are not worth it. Ads on media like Nation print or digital cost much more.

I think the thirst for merchandise lowers the standard for quality and integrity. There ought to be collateral (down payment) equal to 3x the average sale of a merchant. They can borrow the M-pesa agent standard. Proper vetting, deposits, formal certification as an online trader. This way a genuine complaint can lead to consequences. There should be a "CRB" - a central reference - for online traders. They can cooperate or hang together. TRUST SYSTEM is basic. There are even phony apartments on OLX where people get conned

I imagine Masoko and Jumia have most of these covered. At extra cost. The two actually hold stock and do fulfillment. That's serious overhead. Classifieds are not different because they lead to exchange of goods or services. Thin margins will push out some.

?OLX used to be totally free and it remained free for years. So the sudden  urge to turn some profit may have faced resistance. Maybe it should have been gradual. Or they should have ?OLX Prime for paying advertisers,and OLX basic for free riders.....you know, some real differentiation

[Nefertiti]

The free ad window was meant to grow the platform. Trouble is potential buyers are turned off by so many cons, frauds, counterfeits and low quality merchandise. A vetting layer that Pundit suggests would knock off half of the merchants - but the overhead is costly. It's pointless to have a platform of bottom feeders.

For instance the landlord should have to list the apartments himself, not some agent who can be a con. He gives title deed, etc, pays a deposit and gets it back only after the buyer reports back. The platform is a guarantor not a website. The buyer details also remain on the record as well. No dark web.

[bryan275]

Facebook advertising and pop up shops killed this one... folks are advertising on Twitter, Whatsapp and even Telegram.  No paid model will work in Kenya....