Online ads pop up on rival sites
If you have posted an online ad to sell a used teak cot or rent out a property recently, you may be among the many surprised to find it appear mysteriously on other classifieds portals.
This is because players in the fast-growing online classifieds industry are freely 'borrowing' listings from rival sites in a bid to become the largest in their categories and attract funding. Only a few take consent of advertisers.
Players in the Rs 2,400-crore Indian online classifieds market confirm this trend. "Not only small classifieds but large online classifieds players are also resorting to this practice. Our users are often called by other websites and have complained to us of the same," said Kamayani Singh, communications and social media manager for OLX India, which is 100% owned by South Africa's Naspers Group.
ET verified this trend by posting a real estate ad on a platform. Soon it was contacted by at least two startups seeking more information. One was Zamoona, a young real-estate classifieds startup. "We do take consent from people before posting ads online on our platform which caters to only premium listings across Delhi NCR," said Anant Goel, an INSEAD graduate who cofounded Zamoona last year.
Zamoona doesn't have onground sales staff. It has a four member tele-calling team which scouts for premium listings across other platforms. "However, our USP is that we never share contact information of either buyer or seller. We connect them on calls via our cloud technologies," said Goel.
The trend of replicating advertiser information is rampant across industries. According to IAMAI, jobs is the largest category in online classifieds market constituting about 60% of the market share followed by matrimony (22%), B2B classifieds (13%) and real estate 7%.
"Startups should certainly verify with an advertiser if she wants her ad to be placed on their website," said Sumit Jain, cofounder and CEO of CommonFloor.com, a property portal funded by Tiger Global and Accel Partners.
"Information is getting commoditised today and what matters to users now is the experience they are provided by an online startup. We at CommonFloor, however, verify most properties we take on our website," said Jain, who has a 750-member team, including ground staff that scout for listings across India.
Easy scalability and rapid growth in this space are making foreign investors interested. Investor firms, such as Warburg Pincus, Sequoia Capital, eBay, Nexus Venture Partners and Matrix Partners, have stakes in over a dozen startups.
In March, this year, Bangalore-based online classifieds venture Quikr raised Rs 550 crore from a group led by Swedish investment firm Investment Kinnevik. Two months ago, Housing raised Rs 115 crore from investors like Helion Venture Partners and Qualcomm Ventures. Bigger players are not happy about the trend but express helplessness.
"If an advertiser gives a permission to a rival platform to use his or her ad on their website, legally other platforms can't intervene," said Vivek Madhukar, COO at Times Business Solutions Ltd, which owns portals such as MagicBricks and TimesJobs. TBSL is part of Times Group, which owns this newspaper.
If you have posted an online ad to sell a used teak cot or rent out a property recently, you may be among the many surprised to find it appear mysteriously on other classifieds portals.
This is because players in the fast-growing online classifieds industry are freely 'borrowing' listings from rival sites in a bid to become the largest in their categories and attract funding. Only a few take consent of advertisers.
Players in the Rs 2,400-crore Indian online classifieds market confirm this trend. "Not only small classifieds but large online classifieds players are also resorting to this practice. Our users are often called by other websites and have complained to us of the same," said Kamayani Singh, communications and social media manager for OLX India, which is 100% owned by South Africa's Naspers Group.
ET verified this trend by posting a real estate ad on a platform. Soon it was contacted by at least two startups seeking more information. One was Zamoona, a young real-estate classifieds startup. "We do take consent from people before posting ads online on our platform which caters to only premium listings across Delhi NCR," said Anant Goel, an INSEAD graduate who cofounded Zamoona last year.
Zamoona doesn't have onground sales staff. It has a four member tele-calling team which scouts for premium listings across other platforms. "However, our USP is that we never share contact information of either buyer or seller. We connect them on calls via our cloud technologies," said Goel.
The trend of replicating advertiser information is rampant across industries. According to IAMAI, jobs is the largest category in online classifieds market constituting about 60% of the market share followed by matrimony (22%), B2B classifieds (13%) and real estate 7%.
"Startups should certainly verify with an advertiser if she wants her ad to be placed on their website," said Sumit Jain, cofounder and CEO of CommonFloor.com, a property portal funded by Tiger Global and Accel Partners.
"Information is getting commoditised today and what matters to users now is the experience they are provided by an online startup. We at CommonFloor, however, verify most properties we take on our website," said Jain, who has a 750-member team, including ground staff that scout for listings across India.
Easy scalability and rapid growth in this space are making foreign investors interested. Investor firms, such as Warburg Pincus, Sequoia Capital, eBay, Nexus Venture Partners and Matrix Partners, have stakes in over a dozen startups.
In March, this year, Bangalore-based online classifieds venture Quikr raised Rs 550 crore from a group led by Swedish investment firm Investment Kinnevik. Two months ago, Housing raised Rs 115 crore from investors like Helion Venture Partners and Qualcomm Ventures. Bigger players are not happy about the trend but express helplessness.
"If an advertiser gives a permission to a rival platform to use his or her ad on their website, legally other platforms can't intervene," said Vivek Madhukar, COO at Times Business Solutions Ltd, which owns portals such as MagicBricks and TimesJobs. TBSL is part of Times Group, which owns this newspaper.
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