The Online Classifieds Market, How do Uganda players stand?

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Over the past few years there has been a growing boom in the Internet market seen with several entrepreneurs setting up classifieds websites.  Classified advertising is a form of advertising which is particularly common in newspapers, online and other periodicals which may be sold or distributed free of charge. For so many years, classifieds advertisements in a newspaper have been typically short, as they are charged for by the line, or column. The internet makes it possible to overcome the paper limits and have classifieds with photos, video, and maps if needed.  In the USA and worldwide http://www.craigslist.org is the major classifieds website that happens to be among the top 10 USA websites.  In UK http://www.gumtree.com/ is one of the leading classifieds website and is among the top 50 UK websites.

In Kenya http://dealfish.co.ke/ has seen significant growth having about 117 600 ads as of April 2012 and ranking among the top Kenyan websites. Dealfish with a vision to be the leader in several African markets has seen lukewarm growth in Uganda and Tanzania.  On the other hand Google trader for Uganda and Kenya is seemingly gaining ground with a visit to the classifieds portal showing active recent posts for autos and housing among others. http://kampalamart.com with over 3500, posts as of April 2012 is the other active player. Several other players that opened shop in Uganda do not seem to feature much growth in terms of number of classifieds posts.

In general the classified business is still seeing slow growth in Uganda. May be one of the reasons could be the culture of Ugandans that tend to be more trusting of the seller if they visit a shop physically or when they see an advert on paper. Many may still be a little skeptical about the validity of online classifieds and their effectiveness. Nevertheless the growing trends on Google trader and Kampalamart in Uganda are a good sign that more Ugandans are going to embrace this way of selling and buying. 

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