StatusAcquired Naspers August 27, 2013Total Equity Funding 1 Round 1 InvestorHeadquarters:DubaiDescription:dubizzle is an online platform that enables individuals to sell, buy, or find products in their cities./Social: Founded:May 27, 2005Employees:51 - 100 | is the easiest online platform to place free ads, allowing you to find whatever you need, sell & buy within your city. From books, baby toys, gadgets, electronics, cars and jobs, to property sale/rent and much more. Millions of users and ads in there. Give it a try and you will become addicted. It's totally free, no commissions nor agents Amount / RoundValuationLead InvestorInvestorsundisclosed amount / Venture——1Mohammad Rafay AleemJr. ButlerFounderIsrael Fermín MontillaSoftware EngineerQasim KhanSoftware EngineerSim WhatleyManaging Partner, Co-founderDateNews - Social selling: The future of ecommerce in the Middle East? - Wednesday News Roundup: 400 Kenyan Graduates With Skills - Dubizzle will now be known as OLX in North Africa and the Middle East - Naspers OLX Swallows Egypt's Dubizzle - Five companies to watch in Dubai - Tech City News - Research and Markets: 2015 Craigslist Annual: In-Depth Report on the $381 Million Revenue Generating Company - Tech news from the Middle East: What you need to know from the past month - Middle East Tech News

: What you Need to Know from FebruaryLoading dubizzle's tweets...dubizzle on TwitterHeadquartersDubai Media CityShatha TowerDubai, 333905AREA series dedicated to the story of success of some of the most innovative and enterprising startup projects, which gained worldwide recognition and changed the face of technology as we know it. is a testament to the fact that the United Arab Emirates has always been a lucrative destination for entrepreneurs who have what it takes to strike gold. was founded by the American duo of Sim Whatley, a finance major, and J. C. Butler, an international economics graduate, who saw moving to Dubai an avenue to new opportunities. They immediately felt the absence of an online classified portal to help potential consumers in the city connect to buyers. now has a presence in 14 countries in the MENA region including Egypt, Algeria, and Tunisia. The website also has dedicated pages for all of the Emirates in the UAE. Based in Dubai, the website was launched by Whatley and Butler in 2005 after they noticed the lack of an online resource to help people easily reach a variety of affordable and desired items.

into a solution to a market that was waiting to be taken. Dubizzle features everything from the smallest household items to cars, furniture and real estate on its market. By 2016, Dubizzle enjoys more than 200 million unique visits and more than 360 million page views per month as per its official website. business for sale juneau akThe brand has seen rapid success and expanded from a two-man operation to more than 160 employees in UAE and Dubai in just a matter of less than three years.handyman columbus ohio Once they launched their website after correctly identifying and, more importantly, acting to seize the gap of the absence of a quality online portal for classified ads, they had to work hard to get known.business for sale 37066

Where would a classified ad portal be if nobody knew about it anyway? They used text messages in those years when the smartphones were yet to arrive and attracted traffic from online forums in order to gain following for their platform. lee's handyman & home improvement serviceIn a largely tech-illiterate market, they were able to develop a culture of turning to the internet for finding local items for sale.business for sale placerville ca Like all startups, the beginnings were never easy for Dubizzle co-founders, who were sharing an apartment on Sheikh Zayed Road, lived on 10 AED meals and worked out of their living rooms to save for their startup.business for sale nuriootpa Despite their enterprising idea, the cofounders initially had a hard time attracting investors to their projects.

Both Sim Whatley and J. C. Butler pooled in savings of $ 12,000 to launch the brand and ran almost all of the operations themselves. to establish its presence in even more countries, covering more cities than ever before. The cofounders of Dubizzle believe in a problem solving approach to management. Writing for Arabian Business, this is how co-founder J. C. Butler elaborates their vision for Dubizzle: “At Dubizzle, our vision has always been about making the world fairer, disrupting exploitation, and having some fun. When we started in the UAE (and still in many of our newer markets), exploitation of consumers was everywhere. Trade only happened through middlemen. Buyers were getting ripped off, people had no place to sell their things, job seekers were forced to go through recruiters, etc. The marketplace was opaque and unfair for the everyday consumer, and it made us angry. Dubizzle started, and exists today, for one reason: to disrupt consumer exploitation and have some fun doing it.

Dubizzle achieving its vision doesn’t just impact economies; it impacts real lives, millions of them, by making the world a bit more transparent, efficient, and fair.” In 2013, both Sim Whatley and J. C. Butler decided to step down from their positions in order to spend more time with their families in the United States. After 8 years of hard work, they were confident that they had helped the brand reached the organization that it did not need their leadership anymore. The classified website was taken over by the South African internet and media corporation Naspers, the MIH subsidiary of which had already invested 25% in the brand in 2011.ArtoJoensuu became the CEO of the company after their departure.[5] The co-founders would continue to be affiliated with the organization in advisory roles. In 2015, Dubizzle became a part of the global OLX classified ad network, which is the largest in the world and is owned by Naspers as well, for an undisclosed sum. Despite the changed leadership of Dubizzle, the vision of the cofounders is being carried on.

OLX is concentrating on the mobile app of the store, considering the increased usage of mobile internet. However, the global classified network assures of continuing the same path of offline payments, which is the preferred model for e-commerce websites in the MENA region, while planning to introduce online commission on ads. With more than 240 million users, Dubizzle is looking as stronger than ever to become an even bigger e-commerce phenomenon in the MENA region. Of course, it remains to be a great inspiration for startup entrepreneurs all over the world, particularly those who want to move to Dubai to set up a business. And the lesson of the story is to never give up on your dream no matter how difficult the challenge is. In the words of the cofounders of Dubizzle themselves: “If you believe deeply in your vision, then you know failure is not an option.” [1] Business Pulse, Rags to riches: The Dubizzle story, Aug. 11, 2013 – Available at: http://www.businesspulse.ae/Grow/story/watch/VID20130811105851http://www.businesspulse.ae/Grow/story/watch/VID20130811105851