Prabdeep Singh Bawa, a banker from New Delhi, is sold on a classified ads portal after he listed his bank's home loans there — 30 per cent of the many leads he got led to business.

Later, he also sold his laptop and has now listed some of his mother's paintings there. Used furniture, your homemade goodies, or your knowledge of Italian — you can sell and buy all these and more on horizontal classified ad portals, an e-commerce category poised to take off with Internet access in the country getting easier. Product listing is free, uploaded through a PC or a mobile phone, and the Web site's role ends there as the final transaction is between the seller and the buyer.

Mr Amarjit Batra, Country Manager, Olx.in, says these portals are outlets for emerging markets such as India where growing disposable incomes are generating “a lot of surplus,” especially as there is “a lot of pain” in finding out how to sell off these things.

Mr Saurabh Pandey, Vice-President, TradusADs, a division of social gaming company Ibibo, says users can get a 20-25 per cent better price for things which often end up being sold as junk.

Encouraging entrepreneurs

They are becoming an avenue for housewives to set up a business without much investment. Many people, especially women, from smaller places are experimenting with selling on these sites. “It becomes a habit to list another product as soon as they sell one,” Mr Pandey observes.

TradusADs is holding sessions with residential societies to teach mothers and children how to use their possessions more productively or sell them off — Mr Pandey says this will go a long way in raising awareness and wants to scale up this activity.

These ‘hyper-local classifieds portals' aim to serve users in cities big and small and in specific neighbourhoods. The portals allow business transactions between companies/traders, usually small and medium operations, as well as individuals.

Mr Pandey says the most popular categories are cars and bikes, electronic items, used household items such as furniture, home gyms and toys. Both business heads say these sites have great potential in India where the touch-and-feel experience matters, and where the product or service delivery is immediate, without the bother of advance payment.

Promise of potential

Mr Pandey says the online horizontal classified portals market is less than Rs 50 crore, while the larger classifieds market (including real estate and matrimonial sites) is around Rs 1,200 crore. While TradusADs tracks business by the number of click-throughs into contact details provided, OLX's Mr Batra says the growing number of listings is a good measure.

Currently, about 7-8 lakh ads are up on the India portal, he claims. OLX is present in 96 countries, headquartered in the US and has operations in Argentina. In the last two years, it has acquired a 4-million user base and he expects this to go up to 15-20 million in the next 2-3 years, he claims.

Automated as well as manual checks vet content, the portals say.

A user Business Line spoke to complained that ads lingered on even after the transactions ended, and that the contact details given could be misused by spammers and telemarketers. On some portals, ads expire after a certain duration.

While TradusADs is not generating any revenue now, it will when it activates its premium listing model, which ensures quicker listing, prominent placement and highlighting.

OLX make money from sponsored ads that come up through users' searches. A well-known portal of this kind is Craigslist. Indian players include click.in and freeads.in.

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