Vottle.com - A South African Classifieds

Vottle is a new online classifieds based in South Africa. The setup should be familiar to anyone who’s browsed Craigslist or any of the many other web classifieds out there, the sole differentiating factor being geography (Vottle caters exclusively to Africa). Categories for selling, buying and trading include motor vehicles, properties, computers, services, health, books, furniture, and business services. On a more social level, there are personals, a community section, and events. A search bar provides for general search capabilities. According the site’s own stats, there are currently 9611 registered users and more than 37000 ads posted. Using the site is free for everyone.

“The Vottle project is exactly that, a project. There is no income generation and there is no business model. There is just a vision, a passion and a bunch of goals. For a start, we have a very long list of technical stuff we want to roll out over the next 6 months. Our mission is to try and establish an online brand here in South African and to grow some critical mass in the classifieds space. It is not an easy task as the competition is intense and our time and resources are limited. But we are having fun and we are meeting our deadlines, well, almost (we keep coming up with new features to add all the time).”

Vottle’s aim in opening the African market and gaining mass in the classifieds space is respectable. The site already has a sizable user base which seems to be steadily growing. Their integration with eBucks (users can pay for items using virtual cash) represents a significant step. What’s more, using the site is a breeze. Anyone, even the most tech unfriendly person can post an ad.

How does Vottle plan to gain a foothold in the competitive classified market? While classified sites aren’t usually big on aesthetics, Vottle seems particularly lacking in that department—it needs bigger, bolder text for easier reading among other things.