“Like OLX, hi5 has a strong and growing global presence. We’re excited about this new partnership because it will bring some great new features to loyal users of each site. It provides more social promotion features to OLX users and it provides a new classifieds platform for hi5 users,” says Fabrice Grinda, Co-CEO of OLX. “We expect it to also attract new users, who will find a better social networking and online classifieds experience than they can get anywhere else.”
hi5 will now have OLX features that include the ability to display ads on a user’s profile page and to see hi5 friends’ ads, as well as a feature to tell friends about your own ads. OLX also allows users to include videos and pictures in listings, comment on listings, post/view listings in over 39 languages and 90 countries, and access the site from a mobile phone–making it an ideal fit for hi5’s global user base.
“Classified listings are a valuable service for our users, and a promising incremental revenue stream for our business,” said Peter Foster, Chief Advertising Officer at hi5. “OLX’s global prominence, broad language support, and localized listings made them a logical choice to serve our diverse global audience.”
OLX is the largest 100% free classifieds site in the world with over 70 million unique visitors each month and provides a simple solution to the complications involved in selling, buying, trading, discussing, organizing, and meeting people across the globe. hi5 is one of the largest web sites in the world, with over 60 million monthly unique visitors from over 200 countries. Both companies are at the top of the Spanish-language markets, are internationally-known, and expect their deal to increase their presence both in the United States and around the world.
About OLX OLX is an internet company based in New York, NY and Buenos Aires, Argentina. The OLX website hosts free user-generated classified advertisements for urban communities around the world and provides discussion forums sorted by various topics. The company was co-founded in March 2006 by Internet entrepreneurs Fabrice Grinda and Alec Oxenford. Fabrice previously founded Zingy, a mobile ringtones company that sold to For-Side for $80 million in May 2004. Alec previously founded DeRemate, a leading online auction website in Latin America. DeRemate sold to MercadoLibre.com, an eBay affiliate, in November 2005. Alec is also a member of the World Economic Forum’s List of Young Global Leaders. As of January 2009, OLX is available in 90 countries and 39 languages. For more information and to explore the site, visit: http://www.olx.com
About hi5 Headquartered in San Francisco, hi5 is one of the world’s largest and fastest growing social entertainment sites. hi5’s focus is on delivering a fun, interactive, and immersive social experience online to users around the world. With over 60 million unique visitors every month, hi5 is a top 20 website globally and the number one social site in dozens of countries across Latin America, Europe, and Asia. The service is available in over 50 languages, delivering localized content, games and other applications to users worldwide. For more information on hi5, visit: http://hi5.com