If you’re one of those people that like to peruse the classifieds looking for a deal and haven’t been on OLX in a while, we’ve got some bad news. OLX South Africa has closed down. Like, all the way down.
You’ll be greeted by the image below if you head to the website now. Reports of the closure started emerging on Tuesday, 1 February 2022.
Press F to pay respects
In the site’s defence, it does redirect you to Property24 or Autotrader – two OLX subsidiaries. That’s great if you were looking for a car or a house, but if you’re still trying to get your hands on a second-hand PS5, you’ll have to risk Facebook marketplace or Gumtree.
Not only is the site still down, but it has also been removed from every other platform you can think of. The Twitter account is gone, the Facebook page is deceased and the mobile app has been deported from Google’s Play Store and Apple’s App Store.
OLX-owner Naspers, headquartered in Amsterdam, operates in many countries all over the world. It previously had OLX offices in other African countries but pulled out in 2018, leaving just the SA office in operation.
In an email statement, the OLX general manager for Asia, the Middle East and Africa, Sjoerd Nikkelen said, “A few moments ago, we discontinued our OLX horizontal classifieds platform in South Africa, as we focus our customer proposition fully on our strong property and autos verticals in the country — Property24 and AutoTrader.”
“This is ultimately an indication of the progress we have made in South Africa over recent years and symbolic of how we as OLX Group continue to adjust ourselves.”
That last bit sounds an awful lot like ‘we’re losing out so we’re pulling out to focus on what we’re good at’.