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How the mighty Sulit became OLX PH

It is no secret how Sulit became the Philippine’s internet superstar since its inception in 2006. That’s why it’s a huge surprise how a giant could just suddenly give up all its brand equity to become the lesser-known OLX Philippines.

Before Sulit, there was Buy&Sell Philippines, the company behind the free classified ads magazine. It was husband and wife RJ David that proved the internet is a level playing field, starting Sulit from scratch and a meager budget of Php2,400.

The growth of Sulit was the envy of the owners of the Buy&Sell magazine that they tried, in vain, to regain the crown.

By 2009, there were a lot of interested buyers. This includes eBay and the now investor and majority owner, Naspers. Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) was also interested in Sulit and made an offer. When their bid failed, they formed a joint venture with Schibsted ASA (a leading classifieds ad company in Europe) to create AyosDito.

(Disclosure: The author was one of those who attempted to broker an investment deal, but it was too late since Sulit had agreed to the terms of Naspers).

Naspers bought 51% of Sulit for an undisclosed sum (see story here 12).

The initial investment catapulted Sulit from the top 25 most visited sites to no. 1. The team grew from an initial 5 (the founding couple and 3 friends/relatives working as Forum Moderators) to just under 50 in a short amount of time.

Succeeding investments made Sulit a household brand with big-budget spending on TV commercials, billboards and bus ads; that’s on top of digital campaigns via Google, Facebook and YouTube.

The company even grew to almost 100. The office atmosphere was like that of Facebook or Google that includes free buffet weekdays and even their very own Starbucks kiosk inside the office during anniversaries. This also further reduced the share of the founders to merely 17%.

With all the spending and the expansion, it was already obvious that Sulit was building for scale and market share instead of focusing on profitability. Majority of the revenues came from Google Ads and very little from direct or premium ads. Essentially, they were still operating at a loss. The goal was to get as much market share away from aggressive competitors like AyosDito, eBay and the likes.

Sulit was already enjoying in excess of 60% market share but it wasn’t enough. They needed to be bigger so that competitors would become insignificant. At least, that seemed to be the direction.

Meanwhile, the mother company also wanted to get into verticals. Tsikot was among those that were approached, with offers reaching up to Php100M in investments spread out in 5 years (see story here).

That deal fell through so Sulit had to pursue their own, pushing sub-domain verticals like cars.sulit.com.ph and realestate.sulit.com.ph.

Sulit even bought out the fledgling Pinoy Auto Trader (PAT), a promising vertical in the car classifieds market.

All the while, Naspers had something else in mind. Not soon after the acquisition of Pinoy Auto Trader, Sulit announced that it will be closing down the site; a move that surprised even the founders of PAT.

In December of 2013, another announcement was made — Sulit is merging with OLX. OLX has been around for as long as Sulit but they were never really active in the Philippines and thus, wasn’t even a familiar name to a lot of Sulitizens (a name referred to folks who are members of Sulit). Nevertheless, the site is also a leading brand in so many markets globally and they’re also partly owned by Naspers.

By then, it became apparent that Naspers was looking at another direction altogether. The decision was made. OLX will have to be the new face of Sulit (see story here). It was a quick decision since Naspers was the majority owner anyway.

While it was very hard, the founders had very little or no choice but to follow in that direction. If they want to retain Sulit as it is, there will be no more additional investments and Sulit had to become profitable and support their operations. If they merge with OLX and make the pivot, they get fresh infusion and continue to run the company. The founders practically shed tears over this decision but it was a sacrifice they had to make for all the years they spent in building the company and the brand. It was their baby.

OLX is a huge network globally and while Sulit will no longer be the banner brand, the people behind it and the community remains the same. This is a landmark story of two Filipino entrepreneurs aspiring to go big. It’s a story of success. The OLX merger is a testament to that.

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Avatar for Abe Olandres

Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines. He is also a technology consultant, a tech columnist with several national publications, resource speaker and mentor/advisor to several start-up companies.

38 Responses

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  2. Avatar for Jasper Laguitao Jasper Laguitao says:

    i was trying to find my boyfriend something nice in OLX. instead I got scammed. so much for my hard earned money working parttime selling myself =(

  3. Avatar for adel santos adel santos says:

    now …Feb 1 2017..they removed the “saved bookmark” feature…damn I was going to buy a certain house which I saved but now I have to find it again …shitty management will kill this company I’m sure!

  4. Avatar for Xion lim Xion lim says:

    Worst app ever… delete! Whats the new alternate app for free selling in the Philippines?

  5. Avatar for lord lord says:

    they’re now successful in killing the companies altogether – ayosdito, sulit, olx. *slow clap*

  6. Avatar for brian brian says:

    olx is a big disappointment. i tried to reset my password and a link was sent to my cell phone but when you click it you will get the page that says “we are under maintainance”. I waited for weeks but still I get the same page. Now I can’t get back to my account because of it. Olx/sulit is almost telling all of us that they are nothing but sh*t

  7. Avatar for Jan Jan says:

    Sulit is horrible now and you’re likely to get scammed or flaked on by fake buyers and sellers. It’s been obvious that they’re trying to monetize on a poor business model. They can’t make money off ads that people just don’t click on. Impressions sure but clicks no. EBay is better.

  8. Avatar for Jeph San Pedro Jeph San Pedro says:

    I went back to Sulit/OLX after a year of my last transaction and then this crap greeted me! Where the hell is the feedback or review features?! I already garnered some positive seller reviews from the past! How am I suppose to know if a seller is credible from his/her past transactions?

    I recently had a transaction that got awry because this seller backed out the last second, texting me he already sold the unit to someone else. WTF??? We had a deal and he just bolted out without informing me. I adjusted my work schedule and this is what I get. Now I cannot even leave a warning for other buyers to this seller’s bad treatment to a customer.

    If this is OLX way of “innovation” then I’m out. They’re practically shooting their own foot to cure an itch.

  9. Avatar for Liza May Liza May says:

    For olx alternative I’m currently posting my ads at www.tims.ph. The website is user friendly and have a supportive admins. Plus Tims.ph traffic is starting to grow. So expect lots of sales from that website. :)

  10. Avatar for wakkafon wakkafon says:

    ….. and starts the fall of Olx.ph/Sulit :D

  11. Avatar for dissatisfied dissatisfied says:

    removing the feedback feature is such a dumb move that it fails to make sense. everytime you look into a prospective item you want to buy and click on the details of the seller they are always newly created accounts which definitely leads to warning signs as the items are always just for shipping, now isn’t that just convenient. its ridiculous, might as well look into other sites to purhase item till they get their shit together.

  12. Avatar for Lorelei Lorelei says:

    I got scammed in OLX.ph last monday. The ONLY time i got suckered in my 11 years of shopping online and by a fellow filipina no less. I’ve been an ayosdito member since 2010. it used to be fun there but now it’s just disappointing. I’m NEVER visiting the OLX.PH site again even if anyone would dare pay me to. Good luck to those who still do. Scammers must be so happy that the OLX feedback system is gone.

  13. Avatar for Mad@OLX Mad@OLX says:

    OLX is the worst site ever. It bills the sellers for every ad. Plenty of loopholes.Better move to other sites and post your ad free. Good by OLX-Sunglit!

  14. Avatar for maryon mayor maryon mayor says:

    OLX stands for OnLine Exchange…

  15. Avatar for Christopher M. Sales Christopher M. Sales says:

    This is not the same sulit.com.ph we have known for being helpful to all small time enterpreneurs that open our doors to business opportunies being in online buying & selling.

    Majority of the Sulitzens are very disappointed right now. You cannot post your ads now for free. Unlike before you can post your unlimited ads for free.

    OLX.PH really sucks. If you continuesly doing your unfriendly approach most of us will look for a better alternative. Remember sulit.com.ph is nothing without the people who patronizes your website.

    You have allowed all the notorious scammers to succeed with their illegal activities by removing the feedback system.

    Hope your management will listen to our sentiments before it’s too late for you.

  16. Avatar for IAN IAN says:

    FUCK !! PLEASE RETURN THE FEEDBACK.. in OLX.ph

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