Carousell banks on auto sector to drive growth

MANILA, Philippines — Online classifieds marketplace Carousell is banking on the automotive segment to fuel its growth this year.

Carousell Philippines general manager Raffy Montemayor said the automotive sector is among the drivers of growth for the platform this year.

“I am confident that our automobiles business unit will lead in the online classified space,” he said.

He said views of car listings and the number of listings have grown consistently since the migration of OLX Philippines users to the Carousell platform.

Carousell Philippines head of cars Karl Magsuci said in particular, views of car listings grew to 312,000 post-migration from 106,000, while car listings increased to more than 13,000 from around 6,000 pre-migration.

For car parts and accessories, views went up to 121,000 after the migration from 71,000, previously, while listings rose to 5,300 post-migration from 1,600.

For motorcycles, views reached 102,000 after the integration, from 44,000, while listings climbed to 4,000 from 1,200 before the migration to the Carousell platform.

Magsuci said Carousell is hopeful views and listings would continue to grow this year.

He said a faster pace of growth is anticipated next year as Carousell makes more improvements to the platform to make it easier to use.

Last July 15, OLX and Carousell started operating under Carousell.ph with the aim of becoming the country’s leading online site for buying and selling items.

The merger took place as Carousell received an investment from Naspers, through its classifieds business arm, OLX Group, earlier this year.

That deal also involved Carousell’s acquisition of OLX Philippines.