OLX reports 40 percent growth as pre-owned phone market thrives in India

With more and more Indians aiming to own high-end smartphones, the pre-owned smartphone market is booming and on the online trading platform OLX, the average selling price (ASP) of a pre-owned smartphone has jumped from Rs 9,000 to Rs 11,000 in just one year, the company said on Saturday.

More and more high-end phones are now being traded on the platform than ever before while the holding period of mobile phones has declined from three to less than two years, especially in tier II and III cities, said OLX.

OLX recorded almost 14 million mobile phones and accessories listings in the financial year 2017-18.

The phone listings on the platform jumped from 2.5 million units in April-June 2017 to 3.5 million in the same period this year -- registering a 40 percent (year-on-year) growth.

"Mobiles is the most transacted category on OLX. We have disrupted the way people buy and sell pre-owned phones in world's second largest smartphone market," Akanksha Dhamija, Head of Electronics & Mobiles category, OLX India, told IANS.

With high penetration and frequent updates, consumers are upgrading to new models within months.

"This results in good-quality and fairly new pre-owned phones available for a huge audience. OEMs and businesses also find it useful to tap potential buyers and sellers looking to upgrade on our platform," Dhamija added.

According to industry estimates, sales of pre-owned smartphones in India are expected to grow at a 32 percent CAGR to reach nearly 46 million units in 2020.

A large part of the pre-owned mobile market is still offline -- driven by dealers, retailers and shop owners -- but online marketplaces are increasingly becoming a popular platform for buying and selling mobiles.

"Almost 70 percent of all the listings in the financial year 2017-18 were sold on OLX -- implying the high liquidity of the platform," claimed the company.

Samsung, Apple, and Xiaomi remain the top three brands listed on OLX.

Xiaomi is the only brand to have grown its share of listings from 12.8 percent to 17.6 percent in last one year.

Samsung holds 20 percent share and Apple covers 13.2 percent listings on the platform, said the company.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)