Quikr is moving towards verticalization, launches QuikrCars
Horizontal C2C classifieds have not moved much leading key players to move towards verticals to accelerate their scale. Similarly, online classifieds majors Quikr has launched car focused vertical QuikrCars. With this, Quikr will offer entire value chain in car classifieds -- news, reviews, information, tips, and tricks.
The company is also going to formally launch its verticals in real estate, jobs, and services in the next four weeks.
The new platform also offers users car inspection reports as well as Quikr’s Maximum Sales Price (MSP) calculator, to help users ascertain the best price range for their cars. QuikrCars also offers a price meter to help buyers see vehicles in the price range that they are willing to pay, and a comparison feature that works across car models.
Speaking about the launch, Pranay Chulet, Founder & CEO of Quikr, said,
The number of transactions in our cars & bikes category had already reached enormous scale due to our strong brand, our organic pull and cross category usage that’s inherent in our business model. So QuikrCars launches as a unique and differentiated market leader which combines its immense car buyer demand and industry leading listings base with deep functionality and a monetization engine specific to the cars category.
YourStory's take
With this, it’s clear that Quikr is moving from C2C horizontal classifieds and experimenting with a slew of new announcements. Besides adopting a vertical approach, the company had also launched a buy button to get into the commerce side.
Recommended read: Is the classifieds market ‘winner-takes-all’ in India?
The company is also going to launch other verticals like jobs and real estate as a major chunk of Quikr’s traffic comes from these vertical plus used vehicle category. After this move from Quikr, it would be interesting to watch how OLX (its biggest rival) responds to it. Most likely OLX will also tend to drift toward verticalization.
QuikrCars will compete with Cartrade, Carwale, Zigwheels, and Droom along with several others.
Online automobile classifieds space isn’t disrupted like product based e-commerce in India. Going forward, online automobile classifieds would be an exciting category in overall horizontal classifieds space. According to experts, automobile classifieds aren’t far away from consolidation.
