During the past year, OLX, the online classifieds subsidiary of Naspers-owned Prosus, invested over R300 million to enhance its artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities.
This emerged yesterday when Naspers and Prosus released their annual financial results for the year ended 31 March.
OLX, which operates the brands AutoTrader and Property24 in South Africa, generated revenue of $777 million (R13.8 billion), an 18% year-on-year increase.
Adjusted earnings before interest and taxes (aEBIT) amounted to $27 billion (R481 billion), representing an increase of 61% (in local currency) over the prior year, while the aEBIT margin was 35%, a significant expansion from 25% in FY24.
According to the firm, the strong performance was primarily driven by its core categories: motors, real estate and jobs, in its key high-growth markets, including South Africa.
In addition, the company says it continues to leverage its strong investments in product, with emphasis on enhancing the customer and user experience through AI solutions.
OLX notes it continuously invests in AI solutions. In the past year, OLX invested $17 million (R303 million) to further strengthen its AI capabilities, tools and talent base.
This, as companies across industries are increasingly investing in AI, as they seek to improve efficiency, gain competitive advantages and unlock new business opportunities.
Parent company Naspers yesterday said it is increasing its investment in AI, describing it as an “indispensable tool” that will underpin future growth across its platforms.
OLX says on the back of the work of its data and AI teams, it has deployed, to date, 55 AI use cases across the business, enhancing personalisation, trust and automation for users and professional customers.
From smarter search, platform moderation and fraud protection, AI will continue to be a crucial pillar of OLX’s growth strategy, it states.
Top-performing categories
OLX notes it witnessed strong user and customer engagement across its platforms. It points out that OLX platforms, operating nine brands in nine markets worldwide, hosted nearly 64 million active listings daily, with 29 million monthly app users.
In particular, it adds, the motors, real estate and jobs categories performed well, with motors achieving 24% revenue growth year-on-year, driven by innovative dealer tools and trust-building features like vehicle history reports and ratings.
Real estate delivered 23% revenue growth year-on-year, supported by product enhancements like unified platform rollout, redesigned mobile app and tools optimised for agents, says OLX.
On the jobs category, OLX strengthened its presence in key blue- and grey-collar job markets across Poland, Romania and Ukraine, with investments in employer branding features and AI-powered matching capabilities.
Christian Gisy, CEO of OLX Group, says: “I am very happy with our financial performance in the fiscal year 2025. We are seeing strong, profitable growth momentum in all of our key categories and markets.
“This proves that we made the right strategic shift towards a stronger focus on our core B2C [business-to-consumer] businesses of motors, real estate and jobs – in selected, high-growth markets. Our investments in artificial intelligence are starting to pay off and will enable us to leverage our potential for even more profitable growth in the future.
“Looking ahead, we are more than confident to achieve sustained revenue growth of over 20%, with profit margins approaching 50% and more.”
Fabricio Bloisi, CEO of Naspers and Prosus Group, says: “OLX has delivered another set of outstanding results, further demonstrating its position as a classifieds leader across multiple markets.
“As a core part of our lifestyle e-commerce ecosystem, OLX is making buying and selling simpler, smarter, and more trusted for millions of users. The team’s clear strategy and performance demonstrate the company's momentum and I'm excited to see what Christian and the team achieve next.”
AutoTrader, Property24 surge higher
In South Africa, AutoTrader and Property24 – the leading platforms within the OLX portfolio – continued to enhance their value propositions through targeted innovation and high-impact customer solutions.
According to OLX, AutoTrader strengthened its position in South Africa’s automotive market through first-to-market innovations in pricing, listings and dealership transparency.
It points out that new consumer features − like machine learning-powered price ratings, enhanced vehicle valuation insights, affordability search filters and real-time price drop alerts − are designed to empower buyers to make more informed deal decisions.
The company says Property24 advanced its role as one of South Africa’s most trusted digital property marketplaces through a suite of experience enhancements for consumers, data-driven tools that improve transparency and save time for agents, and small business support initiatives to enhance inclusivity in the property market.
To accelerate agent and seller deal flow, it launched algorithmic-powered promotional advertising, as well as a WhatsApp-based handover tool to connect agents and sellers.
The company also revamped its online sign-up processes for new agencies and improved its agency-focused market intelligence reports.
Share