Two of Africa’s largest online classified ads companies have merged to form Africa’s largest online advertising group, One Media Africa.
The merger between Kenyan-owned Cheki Africa Media and South African Private Property Holdingsmakes the new entity the largest African online classified ads group by traffic, page views, ad volume and revenue.
One Media Africa is expected to dominate the employment, autos, property and travel segments of online ads.
Cheki Africa Media is the company behind Cheki (Automotives), BrighterMonday and Jobberman (both Jobs), while Private Property Holdings owns both PrivateProperty (properties classifieds) and SafariNow (tours and Travel portal).
“All our brands are market leaders in their respective verticals. Although they are in different stages of maturity, they all generate revenue,” the co-founders said in statement appearing on the “Classified Intelligence Report”.
Cheki is one of the largest auto classified ads site in East Africa, with BrighterMonday and Jobberman being the giants in the jobs section in East and West Africa.
Cheki charged the advertisers a fee to put an advert on its platform, a major source of its revenue stream.
PrivateProperty and SafariNow are the largest real estate and travel portals respectively in South Africa, Nigeria and Namibia.
One Media Africa has employed over 350 people across Africa with offices in Durban, Cape Town, Nairobi and Lagos. It was officially founded in 2012 when the major shareholders Carey Eaton, founder of Cheki Africa Media, and Justin Clarke, founder of Private Property Holdings, met in 2010 with the vision of creating a classified ads giant.
