Ecommerce platform Jiji, formerly known as OLX (it bought OLX in 2019, and later acquired Cars45 in 2021), has announced that it has acquired Ghanaian-based classifieds firm Tonaton.
Tonaton is behind the Jiji app.
Jiji is also one of the most used ecommerce apps in Ghana and Kenya. Additionally, the marketplace operates in Uganda and Tanzania, with some 12 million users making up a monthly active base among all geographies.
The amount of the transaction has not been disclosed.
Tonaton is a subsidiary of Saltside.
It was the primary Jiji competitor in Ghana at the time of its purchase by Jiji.
Nevetheless, Tonaton has quickly grown in popularity thanks to innovations that make it easier for users to buy and sell online, a strategy aligned with Jiji’s mission.
To this end, both Jiji’s and Tonaton’s apps are consistently ranked as the top shopping apps in the Google Play Store in the countries where they operate.
Jiji and Tonaton users will now have access to a larger network of buyers and sellers, which will significantly increase trading opportunity and aggregate user base in what is seen as a major market consolidation in the classifieds sector.
With the deep penetration of Tonaton in the Ghanaian classifieds sector as the go-to platform and factoring in its leading position in Ghana’s transactional used auto market, Jiji has carefully secured a reliable base towards streamlining their services to a projected (SSA) market of 400 million-plus users – a market in which it currently sits as the indisputable leader in several key countries such as Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, and Uganda, amounting to over $10 billion in gross merchandise value.
“With OLX and Cars45 under Jiji’s umbrella, we are getting close to becoming a regional leader in classifieds. Jiji is the largest e-commerce company in Africa by GMV (more than $10 billion), leading in small to high-involvement key categories such as cars and real estate. We hold the rank of the best app in e-commerce proudly with a rating of 4.5/5, a gauge of satisfaction from our millions and millions of daily users,” Jiji CEO and co-founder Anton Volianskyi.
