OLX India FY18 revenue, profit nearly double

Online classifieds company OLX India Pvt. Ltd clocked a 93% jump in operating revenue and an even faster rise in net profit for the year through March 2018.

The local arm of the Netherlands-based OLX Group, owned by South African internet conglomerate Naspers, reported operating revenue of Rs 178.31 crore for 2017-18. That's up from Rs 92.19 crore the previous year, according to the company’s financials filed with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. 

OLX recognises revenue from the sale of both products and services. Its services-based revenue includes income from online advertising and subscriptions, as per the filings.

The company's net profit almost doubled to Rs 15.59 crore from Rs 8 crore.

Total expenses for 2017-18 also rose 93%, to Rs 155.20 crore from Rs 80.25 crore the previous year, driven mainly by staff costs. Employee expenses doubled to Rs 104.42 crore and accounted for nearly 68% of the total expenses.

The strong growth could perhaps be attributed to the traction in the listing of pre-owned cars on its website. 

According to the second edition of the “OLX Automobile Report,” cited by multiple media publications earlier this month, the number of pre-owned cars less than two years old listed on OLX increased 18% from a year earlier to 1.3 lakh during the January-August period of 2018.

Buyer enquiries rose 50% during this period, the reports added.

Naspers re-entered the used-car business in India by floating Stradia.in under OLX in 2016. The relaunch came less than two years after it sold its second-hand cars business Gaadi.com to Google Capital-backed CarDekho.

In the used-cars segment, OLX also competes with the Cars24, CarTrade, Droom, Truebil and Quikr Auto. In the overall online classifieds segment, it competes with Quikr.

OLX’s classifieds platform, which is present in more than 35 countries around the globe, launched its India operations in 2009. Users can sell anything across multiple categories that include cars, mobiles, furniture, laptops, properties, bikes and clothing. Users can submit a free ad as well as a paid ad, depending on the level of promotion required.