UAE-Swedish firm under early Skype employee Nils Hammer quickly builds Tonaton.com into Ghana’s top classified listing platform
(Image: Saltside’s employs a quirky approach toward its advertising)Saltside Technologies, a company with offices in Dubai and Sweden, has seen Tonaton.com a classified listing site based in Ghana grow in just three years by 300%, drawing 600,000 unique visitors a month and expanding its staff expand to 200 people across three countries.Tonaton, which means to buy and sell in the local Twi dialect, is now the largest classifieds site across all categories in Ghana and the country’s eighth largest website – a dominating presence that has prompted Google to discontinue its own attempt at hosting a classified listing service in the country.Hammer explained that “our mission is to create a safe, large and efficient marketplace for millions of people to make deals who could not previously access them. We want to support and foster the naturally entrepreneurial attitude which is prevalent in these markets.”Targeting emerging markets where GDP, population growth and middle class consumer markets are most dynamic, Saltside has succeeded in getting numerous local fashion designers in Ghana to use Tonaton.com as a means of expanding their businesses across the country.“What we’ve basically done is to take advantage of the 47% massive growth of internet penetration in the country to really change the face of online advertising and trade,” noted Kwabena Boakye, a marketing manager for Tonaton in Accra, in comments to Biztechafrica.Hammer added that “the combined value of online advertising in Africa and The Middle East is expected to reach $2.8bn by 2016. Our goal is to be at the forefront of enabling overlooked markets to access online buyers and sellers from across their country, as well as locally.”Founded by early Skype employee, Nils Hammer, Saltside provides classified infrastructure to emerging digital markets, and the company also has sites in Bangladesh (Bikroy.com) and Sri Lanka (Ikman.lk), where internet adoption is also expected to triple in the next few years.In the wider market, March saw Africa’s largest media company, Naspers, invest $75m in a 36% stake of Souq.com, the UAE equivalent of Tonaton, and which is now the largest e-commerce portal in MENA, with 23 million visits per month and more than 6.2 million registered users.Saltside Technologies is backed by $25m in funding from Sweden’s Investment AB Kinnevik, which with total assets of $7bn is one of the largest listed investment companies in Europe.
Our mission is to create a safe and efficient marketplace for millions, enabling the naturally entrepreneurial attitude which is prevalent.
Our mission is to create a safe and efficient marketplace for millions, enabling the naturally entrepreneurial attitude which is prevalent.