Quikr on the draw

The biggest challenge for Indian classifieds sites over the years has been to get people to list and sell. A big push is on to break that inertia. These sites are doing everything, from positioning their ads on TV cleverly to encouraging hoarders to sell stuff. An example of novel ad placement: A Hyundai i10 ad on news channel NDTV is followed by one of Quikr.com, a Mumbai-based online classifieds company, pitching itself as the place to sell your old car so that you can buy the one shown in the previous ad. Pranay Chulet, co-founder and CEO of Quikr, says that buying a new car or a new television is often accompanied by people selling their old car or TV and the site wants to show how it can help. He refuses to say if such innovations meant paying a premium to channels, but adds that often “these things are a function of relationships (between the channel and the advertiser) rather than money.” Meanwhile, Quikr’s competitor OLX has launched an initiative where a team from the website will visit homes to ‘unclutter’ them and help earn extra cash by selling old stuff through the website. The gloves are off in this battle and there’s nothing classified about it.