OLX India is a leading classifieds platform, boasting over 100+ million app downloads across diverse categories, including cars, bikes, real estate, and electronics. OLX aims to redefine the online classified landscape for its users by extending the lifespan of products through its platform, helping them maximize the value of their belongings and promoting responsible consumption, contributing to a greener, more sustainable future.
OLX is now part of the CarTrade Tech Group, India’s largest online auto platform. It encompasses brands such as CarWale, CarTrade, Shriram Automall, BikeWale, CarTrade Exchange, and Adroit Auto. Together, these brands offer a comprehensive suite of tools and services aimed at enhancing the car selling and buying experience, attracting an average of 70 million monthly unique and a staggering 1.4 million listings for auction.
The Origin Story of OLX India –
A Local Solution for a Global Vision
OLX’s journey in India began in 2006 as part of its global expansion, aiming to transform the traditional classifieds market into a vibrant, digital-first experience. India, with its diverse and price-aware population, was the perfect ground for OLX to introduce a user-friendly platform that empowered individuals and small businesses alike.
Adapting to Indian Needs
Understanding the diverse linguistic and cultural landscape of India, OLX tailored its platform to cater to local preferences including multi-language support, which significantly boosted its accessibility and user engagement across the country. This localization strategy was crucial in making OLX a household name in India.
Technology Driving Innovation
OLX India leveraged cutting-edge technologies to address unique local challenges, such as trust and safety in transactions. Innovations such as verified user profiles, secure chat options, and AI-driven moderation systems have set OLX apart as a reliable and efficient platform.
Impact on Local Communities
OLX India has played a pivotal role in fostering local economies, enabling users to buy, sell, or exchange goods and services easily. It has been instrumental in promoting sustainability through the reuse of goods, which resonates deeply with the Indian ethos of value and sustainability.
Meet the Tech Team –
Our Tech Team comprises approximately 60+ individuals spanning various roles, including Backend Engineers, Android Engineers, iOS Engineers, PWA Engineers, SREs, Testing Engineers, Data Scientists, Data Engineers, and Engineering Managers.
These skilled individuals operate within smaller units called Squads, each tailored to specific product domains. Currently, we have three domain-focused squads, each dedicated to enhancing different facets of our application.
In addition to Squads, we’ve established Chapters, which serve as cross-cutting slices across the squads and are organized around technology domains such as Backend, DevOps, PWA, Android, and iOS. Each Chapter, helmed by a Chapter Lead or Architect, takes charge of charting our technology roadmap, driving improvements, fostering innovation, and shaping system design.
Scale –
OLX India operates at an impressive scale, with more than 100K+ Ads posted daily and a staggering 650K+ Images uploaded daily.
With a remarkable daily website visitation rate of 38M+ and a monthly active user base exceeding 33M+, OLX demonstrates its widespread popularity and relevance in the digital marketplace.
Moreover, the platform records over 20M+ daily Ad Details Page Views, highlighting the high level of engagement and interest among users.
These figures collectively underscore OLX’s pivotal role in facilitating seamless transactions and empowering millions of users across India.
Tech Stack –
The tech stack evolves to cater to the unique demands of its user base and market dynamics. Leveraging Java, Go, Python, Kotlin, Swift, JavaScript and TypeScript, developers craft scalable solutions tailored to the diverse needs of buyers and sellers.
Backend frameworks like SpringBoot, ExpressJs, Gin and Django provide the foundation for robust and secure platform functionalities.
OLX India’s data infrastructure relies on MySQL and PostgreSQL for efficient storage and retrieval, while Redis enhances performance with in-memory caching and OpenSearch for providing feed and search results.
Kafka, SNS, and SQS manage streams and queues effectively to handle the vast array of listings and user interactions.
The front end is powered by React for seamless user experiences across devices, with native Android and native iOS developments providing seamless user experience to mobile platforms.
Observability and monitoring tools like NewRelic and Firebase ensure platform reliability and performance, while DevOps practices with AWS, Kubernetes, Akamai, Terraform, and GitLab facilitate agile development and deployment.
With this updated tech stack, OLX India continues to innovate and provide millions of users with a seamless online marketplace experience nationwide.
Guiding principles and philosophies –
- Act like an owner, Think like a customer.
- Foster collaboration, trust, and continuous learning.
- Uncompromising standards in quality, consistency, performance, security & cost-efficiency.
- Keep things simple instead of doing complex & fancy things.
- Pick the right tool for the right job.
- Make strategic trade-offs for effective decision-making.
- Engage with and contribute to Open Source initiatives.
- Design for cost-efficiency and high performance.
- Approach technology costs as engineering challenges.
- Write clean code and conduct thorough testing at all levels.
- And most important of all – Don’t forget to have fun.
Chapter Lead – Backend