OLX has had an undoubtedly successful term in all countries it ever crossed to in Africa. The Startup founded in 2006 by Fabrice Grinda, Alec Oxenford running under Naspers and formerly active in 45 countries before the new split has officially rebranded its zones after a take over by Nigeria’s mighty online marketplace Jiji as announced earlier last month.
The Online Marketplace wing in Africa has always been dominated by big players namely, Jumia, Kilimall, Jiji, and OLx, with the latter duo operating with a C2C (customer to customer) approach. But now that Jiji has swallowed the Olx glory which has been a reckoning online shopping face with strongholds in SubSaharan Africa, it means that Jiji is yet to become the biggest digital marketplace with its customer approach driving its success in Africa.
In Uganda, Olx officially spread its wings in 2011 and inspired the rise of it’s then competitors like Kaymu__rebranded to Jumia. Since its official cross over to the pearl of Africa, Olx has always kept its rankings to the top as the best online shopping alternative with unbeatable discounts on almost everything available for trade since customers offer biddings to fellow customers as buyers via secure layers of authentication.
All Olx features crossed over to Jiji
Though Jumia has always progressed as the biggest alternative to international giants like Amazon, eBay, AliExpress, Gearbest, and Walmart. The rise of Jiji as an OLx takeover will pose a big competition buzzer to the recently NYSE listed B2C (Business to Customer) leader in Africa.
As a fact, Jiji is already the biggest online marketplace in Nigeria and it’s yet to extend its winning strategy to the newly attained zones in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ghana among other Olx active countries. Just like all startups that have merged into great solutions taking over from already successful ventures, Jiji won’t be one to let the ball slid towards its competitor stronghold zones.
The Olx to Jiji announcement came in today alerting all registered customers about the new merger. Part of the rebranding announcement reads ” This message is to inform you that we’ve taken steps to improve your buyer and seller experience by partnering with Walie Holdings Ltd” with a section of the company’s promise to continue spreading great deals to all registered users.
All in all, as Jiji brings a new design riding on the same Olx features. We expect to see a continuation of the C2C online shopping glory that now leaves Naspers’s OLx bounced up with takeover cash from the new merger.