Latest update: September 2023 | by Lili
What is OLX?
Table of contents
- Where is OLX available
- OLX in numbers
- Selling on OLX
- How does OLX work
- IP rights on OLX
- Online brand protection on OLX
- Conclusion
OLX was founded in 2006 in Amsterdam. Similarly to the well-known Craigslist marketplace in the US, OLX started out as a C2C company of classified ads allowing consumers to sell unwanted items from the back of their cupboards.
After a series of acquisitions and mergers, OLX is now part of OLX Group, an e-Commerce company aimed at facilitating trade in both C2C and B2C environments. Popular brands like Turkish second-hand mobile marketplace letgo, Polish AI-powered real estate platform obido, and Romanian car and machinery marketplace Autovit.ro all belong to OLX Group.
Let’s take a closer look at the marketplace at the core of the Group, OLX itself.
Where is OLX available
OLX defines itself as “the world’s leading classifieds platform in growth markets.” In line with that, the marketplace is currently available in various emerging and established markets, including Brazil, India, Indonesia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Columbia, South Africa, Poland, Romania and Portugal.
Screenshot of the homepage of olx.com
The marketplace has both a desktop and mobile version. Customers can choose from many product categories, like fashion, electronics, luggage, baby care, automotive products, real estate and even livestock and pets.
Screenshot of a random listing on olx.ro displaying puppies for sale
OLX in numbers
olx.com has about 25.5 million visits per month. Most of those visitors come from Poland (50.98%), Ukraine (23.8%), Romania (8.6%), Portugal (4.55%) and Bulgaria (3.14%). The rest of OLX’s target markets account for the remaining 8.93%. OLX is actually the second most popular website in the e-Commerce category in one of its most important markets, Poland.
The marketplace has 300 million active users in over 30 countries. The annual revenue of the OLX Group is currently estimated to be around $937.9 million.
Selling on OLX
Would-be OLX sellers need to register an account on the platform first, submitting your name, email address and your primary means of contact where buyers can reach you. Once that’s done, you can create listings, add photos and start selling. To ensure its users convenience, OLX provides help with shipping.
How does OLX work
Finding products on OLX is easy. Shoppers can browse categories, or enter the items they’re looking for into the search bars. Filters for location, condition of the goods, etc. help narrow down the number of results appearing on your screen.
Since olx.com hosts classifieds, buying a product is somewhat different than on well-known B2C marketplaces like Amazon. As the platform works with private sellers and OLX doesn’t offer payment options, buying directly is usually not an option. Instead, shoppers can message sellers via OLX to arrange for the transaction.
This makes the process a bit more tedious than regular online shopping, and a lot more dangerous for your brand’s IP rights.
IP rights on OLX
The OLX Group has implemented a counterfeit policy that states the company’s intentions to fight fake products and ensures its cooperation with brand owners and brand protection experts for a counterfeit-free marketplace.
In its Terms of Use, OLX prohibits the sales of IP infringing goods. As is rather customary in the industry, this document makes it the responsibility of sellers to not post any content that infringes on somebody else’s IP rights.
Unfortunately, this may not be a strong enough deterrent for seasoned fraudsters.
Since sellers are only required to give a bare minimum of information, OLX is a suitable platform for fraudsters aiming to fly under the radar. As you can see from the screenshot below, a seller’s profile features the username they chose for the marketplace and their listings.
Screenshot of a random seller’s profile page on olx.in
Beside any product listing, there’s a button to contact the listing’s owner via the site, but no information is available that could identify the seller. The fact that OLX provides no payment options makes it even harder to identify sellers.
And since businesses can register as OLX sellers as well, the way is open for fraudulent third party vendors to infringe on your brand’s IP rights.
Find out all about third party vendors here
Luckily, this is not the end of the story.
Online brand protection on OLX
globaleyez’s marketplace monitoring service is perfect for detecting IP infringing listings on over 150 marketplaces worldwide, including OLX. Thanks to powerful filters, we can quickly narrow down or widen results to exclude certain sellers, to include entire countries and much more.
Since OLX doesn’t provide a whole lot of data about its sellers, a test purchase would be essential for discovering as much information about the seller and the origin of the products as possible. We run test purchases in over 50 countries, providing you with court-admissible documentation to contribute to an eventual lawsuit, should you wish to escalate matters to court.
Finally, once we’ve established beyond a doubt that we’re dealing with a fraudulent listing, we can enforce your rights and send a takedown request to OLX. Our wide network of industry connections, which includes OLX, aids us in getting the quickest takedowns possible.
Conclusion
OLX helps consumers and businesses in emerging markets to connect with people looking for their used or new products. Although fraudsters may also benefit from what this marketplace has to offer, there’s an easy way to protect your brand’s IP rights from them.
Contact globaleyez and let us create a comprehensive online brand protection strategy on OLX and everywhere else online for your brand.