It will take four more years before OLX Kenya can make profit, a top manager with the company says, highlighting the the long gestation period for internet-based businesses in developing market.
Mr Peter Ndiang’ui, OLX country manager for Kenya, said the firm is focused on growing its market share before it can break even. “The reason for the 2018 date is because in our first years we are investing in a big way to educate people,” says Mr Ndiang’ui. He added that the company’s focus is on growing its user base to make it significantly deeper than any of its competitors.
The decision, which he termed as “strategic”, is meant to ensure that it is in a better position to handle anticipated competition as the e-commerce market grows. “If you have to win you should win big,” he says, “This is the same strategy has been employed by telecommunication companies.”
The firm is spending heavily on aggressive advertising campaigns that have seen it become a household name. The manager said the firm has already started reaping dividends from the media campaign.
“We may not have real figures but if you want to gauge how popular OLX is look at our app, now the fifth most popular download in the region on the Google Apps Store. www. alexa.com, a website that ranks others in terms of usage also shows we are now among top ten websites in Kenya, competing with the likes of Facebook. That gives you a sense of how big we are,” he said.
According to Mr Ndiang’ui, most of the traffic – about 70% – comes from mobile gadgets. Naspers Group, a multi-national company with principal operations in internet services, owns OLX.
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