Online classifieds find rural traction;cows, buffaloes on sale

Black 'Murrah' buffalo with short and tightly curled horns for Rs 80,000 and herd of 10 'Holstein Friesians' cows at Rs 6 lakh on the click of the mouse -- the Indian online classifieds are moving beyond usual items such as mobiles, cars and real estate with increasing internet penetration in smaller towns.

Online classifieds players Quikr and Olx are finding good traction for their business from semi urban and rural areas in states like West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Orissa, Assam and Uttar Pradesh.

"While the main metros continue to be top contributors to our site, the rapidly increasing internet usage in Tier 2 and Tier 3 towns has also boosted our growth tremendously...Today Tier 2 and 3 cities account for over 50 per cent of our traffic," Quikr CEO Pranay Chulet told PTI.

Olx, which has a majority of users mainly from metros, is also finding that small town traffic on its site is growing.

"We do notice positive trends from Tier – 2 cities as well. These include cities like Jaipur, Surat, Cochin," Olx CEO Amarjit Batra said. With these sites offering platform to users to buy and sell a wide range of products, it is not surprising that enterprising farmers are using them to sell their pets and animals as well.

"...people are now witnessing responses to ads even for pets and animals like cows and buffaloes, which have been listed for sale on OLX from rural or semi urban areas," Batra said, adding such trends were prevalent globally.

Buying and selling of such dairy animals is already a practice in rural India and the availability of this platform has further catalysed the trading of dairy farming animals ensuring better reach and responses compared to other traditional platforms, he added.

Expressing similar views, Chulet said:"People are very passionate about their pets and that reflects in the kinds of ads/replies we find for adoption of various pets on our site. We also have rural users putting up their animals for sale even though we have never actively promoted it."

With a variety of users across different sections, these online classified sites are witnessing a range of products being sold and purchased.

"Users have listed exceptional and unique products for sale that are not available anywhere. People have been posting ads for their Bombardier jets, Bhagwad Gita lockets as well as antique Rolls Royce on OLX," Batra said.

On the rapid pace of growth of online classifieds in India, he said: "All of it is due to the increasing internet penetration and awareness of this space due to heavy marketing spends by most companies". Chulet is also expecting to increase the number of transactions as internet penetration rise.

"We believe our platform will continue to see a lot of traction in the years to come as more and more Indians get comfortable with online buying and selling," he said.
Still at a nascent stage, the sites are currently working on a hybrid model that includes paid listings and advertising on the website to generate revenue.