I launched Africavenue classifieds for africa a year ago, and i’m still trying to figure out a growth strategy.
Because i’m french native, i focused mainly in french countries (Cameroon, Ivorian Coast…) where there’s less competition. English speaking countries seems more challenging…

I’m thinking either to raise funds from VC, or boostrap!

This is the situation
The business model for classifieds is simple – members of the public pay to to have their goods listed. That’s a huge market right?**
It’s also easy – Eventually the website does 99.9% of the job (-marketing).
It’s really easy – CMS plus classifieds plugin, done!

Unfortunately this means there are a great number of not very serious attempts at the market IMHO. I cant even begin to count how many of these have popped up! And so I cant help but think that most of the serious guys out there are fighting a loosing battle for recognition and presence. You just become one in a sea of many.

**no just a poorly defined one in most cases 😉