Introduction
Free listings built OLX India's supply. Anyone can post a phone, a sofa or a bike in a minute, and OLX earns by selling optional visibility: Featured ads, Boost to Top, and category packages. But free listing also attracts duplicates, resellers posting dozens of near-identical ads, and scammers who can create listings at no cost. The trade-off in this prompt: should OLX India introduce a small listing fee in the Mobiles category, or keep listings free and monetise only through visibility products? I'll clarify, classify the trade-off, understand the product, form a hypothesis, choose metrics, design an experiment, plan analysis, set a decision framework and recommend.
Clarify → trade-off type → product understanding → hypothesis → metrics → experiment → analysis plan → decision framework → recommendation.
Step 1
Clarifying Questions (3 minutes)
Why it matters: The motive shapes the success criteria. Expected answer: Spam and duplicate listings in Mobiles have grown, and leadership wants more revenue per seller. Impact on approach: We must weigh both quality and revenue, not revenue alone.
Why it matters: A listing fee may cannibalise boosts. Expected answer: Most revenue comes from Boost to Top and Featured ads bought by a minority of sellers. Impact on approach: Track total revenue per seller, not fee revenue alone.
Why it matters: Fees hit them differently. Expected answer: About 70% of sellers are individuals, but resellers create about 45% of listings. Impact on approach: A free quota per individual could protect casual sellers.
Why it matters: Targeting fees needs reliable classification. Expected answer: Partially, using listing frequency, phone and device signals. Impact on approach: Use listing count thresholds rather than self-declared seller type.
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