OLX has launched South Africa’s first classifieds app for the iPad and mobile phones that will enable consumers to advertise, and buy or sell almost anything in one place. One of the world’s fastest growing online classified platforms, OLX is offering the app for free download from the Apple App Store.
Simon Berger-Perrin, vice president of mobile at OLX, reports that globally there are over 55 million iPads out there, with a 150% growth rate over last year, with 60% of the tablets market, and the App Store has reached 25 billion downloads as of March 2012. “We are excited to release this new universal app to address the booming iPad market,” he says. “Now iPad owners have a great free app to buy and sell everything with OLX.”
OLX SA country manager, Paul Casarin, says he is encouraged by the growth of iPad penetration in South Africa. “As more South Africans start using smart phones or touch devices, they will discover the same convenience of using OLX on mobile, that they’ve grown accustomed to on the Internet,” he adds.
“South Africans are progressively using mobile to transact and OLX already provides free classifieds services on a wide range of devices. A large part of our traffic in South Africa comes from iPad owners already. Based on the overwhelming response from our users, we’ve developed a dedicated app for the iPad which dramatically improves the overall user experience.”
It is a Universal app, therefore users only need to download one app and it works on both devices, iPhone or iPad. “The advantage for the users who own an iPhone and an iPad is that they do not need to download two different apps. Same for the updates, both iPhone and iPad apps get updated at the same time making it a convenient option for mobile users,” he says.
Importantly, Casarin says that the new app incorporates the high moderation standards OLX applies to its site enabling a safer place for buyers and sellers.
“Since we launched our first campaign this year, we already had over one million visitors coming to olx.co.za in the month of March. We now have more than half a million adverts available with plenty of choice available to everyone,” he adds.
For those looking for a mobile OLX experience that don’t have iPads, OLX has applications available for BlackBerry, Android and Nokia too.
