Value is in the eye of the beholder | Marketplaces and lead generation

My boy Bastian bought a car. It cost N8Mn ($47k). He found it via a brief search on Cheki, the most awesome car marketplace in Nigeria. But Cheki didn’t directly benefit from what, to most people, is a massive, massive purchase. That is after buying your own house. Easily the most expensive for 99% of people is the purchase of a car. Why didn’t Cheki bother to benefit? Cheki is a marketplace. They connect buyers and sellers and monetize from their activity. Marketplaces are as old as the Internet itself. Craigslist, Ebay et al are the original marketplaces. In Nigeria ,there is the Naspers-acquired ($182Mn) OLX, Schibsted Classified Media AB owned Tradestable, Google Trader and of course we all know about Dealfish who closed last year after spending in excess of $5Mn trying to break into the Nigerian market.
Marketplaces are some of the most profitable ventures online and tend to be a winner-takes-all market. Number 1 usually takes 70–95% of a market and holds that until there is ...