We heard from a reputable source that Naspers has acquired AutoTrader.co.za, South Africa's leading auto vertical. According to the source, the transaction is currently at the Competition Commission of SA for its approval. If approved, it will be one of the biggest classified deals - if not the biggest - to date in South Africa.
In a blog post, Benjamin Schneider, OLX's Berlin-based head of engineering, lifted the lid over the payments system his team developed in-house for rollout to OLX Group sites around the world. The payments service is known as Plutus. While the post is really about the technology stack they chose to build Plutus, Schneider sheds some light on the functions of the system.
Over half of normal shareholders vote against compensation package for CEO Bob Van Dijk, pointing to growing dissatisfaction with management. But his pay-and-options package ultimately passed.
Naspers plans to launch two verticals in Colombia next year.
At the annual general meeting of Naspers, chairman Koos Bekker responded for the first time to criticism that Naspers is over-reliant on Tencent, and that Naspers CEO Bob van Dijk destroys rather than adds value, and should therefore not be given a pay rise. Consequently, the Naspers share trades at a discount to the value of its Tencent stake.
With the annual general meeting of Naspers shareholders and the board just two days away, shareholder Allan Gray announced it will vote against a pay package for CEO Bob van Dijk, because it does not reflect the true performance of the company.
When Lukas Draginas, general manager of Otomoto.pl, raised prices on the Polish automotive classified platform, the site’s customers were livid. “We had trailers blocking the roads around our office, dealers were burning our flags and massively leaving the platform,” Draginas said. But Otomoto held firm, and the result is a classifieds success story in Poland. Draginas will be telling that story, and others, during his talk at AutosPlus2017, the AIM Group’s classifieds conference scheduled for October 9 and 10 in London.
Just a day after we posted that Facebook Marketplace was opening in Germany, the Financial Post in Canada reported that Marketplace is rolling out in a total of 17 European countries, as well as Canada. Should Naspers get worried?
OLX Group launched a unique recruitment drive in India, labeled Code and The Curious, to spot and hire Indian techies for OLX's 25 offices around the world, who are particularly smart when it comes to artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML).
After quietly rolling out its ‘Sell as individual’ program in Bengaluru in January this year (reported by us first, we are proud to say), Amazon Inc. now took the next, purposeful step towards offering a Craigslist-like classified platform nationwide for used goods (with on-site payment): The Sell as individual program was rebranded as Local Finds and rolled out in three new cities.
