When it comes to ecommerce, it’s easy to forget Africa. But there’s lots going on there. And one example is MOBOfree
MOBOfree claims to be a leading African social marketplace and it’s just announced a 274% year-on-year increase in the total value of goods on their platform in Nigeria. The current value of goods is 1.97 billion USD (394 billion NGN), up from 526 million USD (102.5 billion NGN) last year. They have an ID verification programme in addition to a dedicated quality control team which manually reviews every single advert before it’s published.
MOBOfree CEO Cristobal Alonso says of recent success: “Customers are going to the site because they are confident that buyers and sellers have been vetted. Once they experience the ease of use and added security, customers come back and use the site and are reassured on each occasion. This increase is indicative of a growing number of Nigerian consumers willing to buy, sell and swap stuff with people they can trust, MOBOfree makes this process easier and safer.”
So what is MOBOfree? Here’s the official blurb:
“MOBOfree.com is a leading African social marketplace allowing people to buy, sell and swap products and services with other trusted people. MOBOfree.com combines a social network and classifieds board into a single integrated online platform and makes buying and selling online more personal and secure.
MOBOfree has more than 4 million registered users, with more than 2 million monthly active users and over 500,000 active classifieds in Nigeria and a leading position in several other African countries such as Uganda and Zimbabwe.
Over 3000 new registered members join MOBOfree every day and thousands of new items are listed daily. Over 5 million personal messages are exchanged between buyers and sellers every month on MOBOfree. The company is backed by eVa Ventures Fund and has offices in Lagos, Nigeria and Vilnius in Lithuania.”
Perhaps something to watch in the future?
