Quikr and OLX are selling livestock to farmers living in semi-rural and urban areas across the country. They are selling cows, buffaloes and other pets to West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Orissa, Assam and Uttar Pradesh.
The portals are selling Black ‘Murrah’ buffalo with short and tightly curled horns for Rs 80,000 and a herd of 10 ‘Holstein Friesians’ cows at Rs 6 lakh on their websites to cash in on the increasing penetration of internet in rural areas.
“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 Tier-3 cities account for over 50 per cent of our traffic,” Quikr CEO Pranay Chulet said.
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.
“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.
In rural India it is a practice to buy and sell dairy animals; now with the availability of such online platforms, the trading of dairy farming animals is receiving 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.
Inputs: Times of india
