Two huge classifieds sites in Indonesia and the Philippines officially merge

The OLX merger announcement back in late 2014 was a big one. After fierce rivalry over the past few years, OLX’s parent company Naspers agreed to consolidate its resources with former rival 701Search through a joint venture. Naspers and 701Search run a few of the biggest classifieds sites in Asia.

Reason behind this move is consolidation of resources. “Online classifieds is a classic network effect business where more buyers attract more sellers, which attracts more buyers and so on,” says Brad Porteus, OLX CEO of Southeast Asia. In Asia, the ventures affected by the merger are located in Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Bangladesh.

The first of these mergers has officially started in Indonesia and in the Philippines. In Indonesia, users can no longer post new ads on Berniaga.com as of January 14. Instead, the site redirects users to post on OLX Indonesia. All active ads posted on Berniaga after November 11, 2014 will automatically be posted on OLX Indonesia.

The migration is still underway, but the team estimates it will be over by the end of January. By then, users who logged in using their Facebook accounts on Berniaga will automatically have their accounts transferred to OLX Indonesia. Those who login on Berniaga using normal accounts will receive an email password to login to their OLX account.

In the Philippines, the merger between OLX Philippines and Ayos Dito is also underway. January 11 was the last day to post a new ad on Ayosdito, while on January 16 all existing Ayos Dito ads will automatically be migrated to OLX Philippines. On January 22, Ayos Dito will redirect its users to OLX Philippines.

During this migration, OLX will automatically delete all duplicate ads. The newly merged OLX in Indonesia will face off against Kaskus, while the one in the Philippines is up against two online classifieds sites which have are focusing on tech products: TipidPC and TipidCP.

There’s no word yet on when the merger will start to happen in the ventures in Thailand and Bangladesh.