Ringier Africa now has the majority of stakes in Tanzania’s classified platform ZoomTanzania.com. The acquisition will give Ringer Africa access to five countries in Africa.
ZoomTanzania was founded in 2009 and has been in the fore front in classified business in the country with more than 3 million page views. It has 10 employees and is the third most visited Tanzanian website, generating reach and awareness for the country’s top brands. Ringier has acquired a 51 percent stake in the company, which will be integrated into Ringier Africa AG.
Kirk Gillis, founder and Managing Director of ZoomTanzania.com, says: “We couldn’t be more pleased. Of all the potential partners we had been in discussions with, Ringier consistently rose to the top on every metric.
“We look forward to merging our local market expertise with Ringier’s world-class technology and operational excellence. Ringier brings much to the table, and together I have no doubt we will achieve great things here in Tanzania.”
The expansion neatly dovetails with Ringier’s strategy to create a portfolio of market-leading classifieds platforms across Africa. In January 2014, Ringier acquired a majority stake in Expat-Dakar, Senegal’s largest classifieds marketplace.
“Tanzania is one of the fastest growing markets in East Africa. We are excited about working with the great team at ZoomTanzania.com, to expand further on our market-leading position in the region, running the most popular marketplace for a country of 46 million people,” says Robin Lingg, CEO, Ringier Africa & Asia.
With the acquisition of ZoomTanzania, six out of Ringier Africa’s nine platforms are now market leaders in their respective countries. Rupu and Tisu are the largest e-commerce platforms in Kenya and Ghana.
In Nigeria, pulse has established itself as the leading online entertainment and news platform, with more than 4 million page views per month. Allsports recently grew to become Ghana’s largest sports platform, generating more than 2.5 million monthly page views.
