With a 1042% increase in the number of classifieds published on MOBOfree.com in Nigeria leading to over 500 000 active listings on platform in Nigeria only, mobile and social marketplace is becoming huge in Africa.
The firm has announced its gaining a strong footprint in Uganda and Zimbabwe apart from Nigeria where it grew 12 percent over the last 12 months and saw a more than 1555% increase in registered users in Uganda who saw its classifieds in the country increase to 5548%. The firm says it has 4 million registered users, including 2 million monthly active users in Nigeria.
“Online trading is growing rapidly across Africa as the IT and mobile infrastructure across the continent continues improving. Despite that, part of our challenge still is convincing people of the value of using the internet to buy, sell or swap items and services,” said Cristobal Alonso, CEO and co-founder of MOBOfree.
MOBOfree entered the African markets with a unique concept as it connects social networks and classifieds together in a single platform. The substantial growth achieved by MOBOfree confirms that this concept is well accepted in African markets as number of users is quickly growing and more and more people seem to prefer MOBOfree to traditional classifieds companies.
Nigeria’s e-commerce market is developing rapidly, with an estimated growth rate of 25% annually and a potential worth of $10 billion – with around 300,000 online orders currently being placed on a daily basis. A report released by McKinsey & Company indicated that e-commerce could account for 10 % of retail sales in Nigeria, Africa’s largest economies, by 2025.
The MOBOfree technological platform makes buying and selling online easy for any African user with any device, not only for PCs and smartphones but also for old phones with small screens (known as “feature” phones).
