Naspers began rolling out mobile-only vertical applications in real estate and autos in its core markets (called Stradia for real estate and Storia for autos). The apps were first released in Indonesia and India, markets where Naspers' OLX leads the classifieds space but faces competition in the verticals. Mobile-only vertical product will help Naspers marginalise competition in real estate and vehicles, capitalising on its superior mobile expertise, listing advantage, and better positioning.
Naspers has adopted a dual-brand strategy (via separate horizontal and vertical brands) as successful for tackling competition and improving long-term monetisation potential. We see more evidence of online classifieds verticals going deeper into the value chain. In
particular, last month, Indian auto classified CarTrade launched car repairing services on its website.
