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Letgo

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Letgo
Type of businessPrivate
Type of site
Online classifieds
Available inEnglish, Czech, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Italian, Norwegian, Swedish, Croatian, Turkish
FoundedJanuary 2015 (2015-01)
Successor(s)OfferUp (for North America)[1][2]
Headquarters
New York City and Barcelona[3][4]
Founder(s)Alec Oxenford
Jordi Castello
Enrique Linares
IndustryMarketplace, App
URLwww.letgo.com
Current statusActive only in Turkey, Spain, and Norway
Native client(s) oniOS and Android

Letgo (stylized letgo) was a company that provided a website and app that allows users to buy from, sell to and chat with others locally. The products launched in 2015.[5]

History

[edit]

Launched in January 2015 by Alec Oxenford, former CEO of OLX, the app initially targeted the U.S. market, competing against eBay and Craigslist, the online marketplace leaders since the 1990s.[6][7][8][9]

In May 2016, the company merged with Wallapop, another mobile classifieds startup.[10] Letgo remained the majority owner of the company and the brand remained Letgo.[11] At the time, there were about 10 million monthly active users between the two apps, according to SurveyMonkey data published by TechCrunch.[12]

From its launch, the company did not charge for its services, earning no revenue, as part of its strategy to grow quickly.[13] As of June 2018, the listing service remained free, but the app added a paid beta feature allowing users to place their sales item above organic search results.[14]

Three quarters of the first round investment of $100 million was slated for marketing.[15] The ad agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky Miami created a television ad campaign for the app, directed by filmmaker Craig Gillespie. Each advertisement is premised on an extreme situation, such as a person dangling over a cliff who might plunge down because he's holding on to a bowling ball, where the sensible thing to do is to let go of the item.[16] CP+B Miami also created a series of four ads allowing customers to incorporate images and descriptions of their items for sale directly into a satirical video ad, such as one featuring action film star Dolph Lundgren as a mercenary.[17]

The app launched in Canada in October 2016 and in Norway in November 2016.[18][19]

In September 2019, Naspers spun off its investments in Letgo into a separate company, Prosus.[20]

In March 2020, competitor OfferUp announced they would be acquiring Letgo.[2]

As of September 21, 2020, Letgo has officially become a part of OfferUp.[1]

Growth

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By September 2015, the company said its app had two million downloads and half a million product listings.[6] Comscore said it was the second-fastest growing app in the U.S., in 2017.[21] As of January 2018, the app had about 75 million downloads, compared to 30 million in August 2016.[22] It had 200 million listings for secondhand goods and about three billion messages were exchanged between users.[23] The company said it had monthly repeated visitors in the "tens of millions".[23] In August 2018, the company reported the app had more than 100 million downloads and 400 million. Listings were up about 65% during the first eight months of 2018.[24]

Funding

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The company raised US$100 million in 2015,[6] one of the five largest first rounds of venture capital financing since 2008.[15] Following a merger in May 2016 with Wallapop, a competitor with a reported valuation of about $570 million, the company raised an additional $100 million.[10] As of September 2017 the company valuation was more than $1 billion. By that time, it had raised $375 million in total capital.[25] In August 2018, it raised $500 million from Naspers.[26][27]

Corporate affairs

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Leadership

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Letgo is managed by CEO and Co-founder Enrique Linares Plaza. Other key executives are:[28][29]

  • Alec Oxenford, Co-founder
  • Jordi Castello, Co-founder
  • Josh Crossick, Chief Product Officer
  • Rahim Lakhani, Chief Financial Officer
  • Pedro Mestriner, Head of Strategic Partnerships and Market Development

Product

[edit]
Letgo feed
Letgo feed

The app and website facilitates buying and selling used goods. The marketplace, optimized primarily for smartphones, features large photos of products for sale.[30] No log-in is required.[16] Goods are displayed based on the geolocation closest to the buyer. The app is integrated with instant chat functionality.[30]

In 2018, the company added video listings and image recognition that includes pricing suggestions.[21] A housing section was also added.[31]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b "letgo is now part of OfferUp!". OfferUp Support. Retrieved 2020-10-02.
  2. ^ a b "OfferUp raises $120M, will acquire rival Letgo; OLX Group to own 40% of combined entity". GeekWire. 2020-03-25. Retrieved 2020-03-26.
  3. ^ Lomas, Natasha (10 May 2016). "Wallapop and LetGo, two Craigslist rivals, merge to take on the U.S. market, raise $100M more". TechCrunch. Retrieved 14 April 2018.
  4. ^ Hopland, Sindre (12 May 2016). "Barcelona Marketplace Merger: Wallapop + Letgo = Letgo". Barcinno. Retrieved 14 April 2018.
  5. ^ "South Africa's Naspers Backs Smartphone Start-Up Letgo". The New York Times. 3 September 2015. Retrieved 17 December 2015.
  6. ^ a b c "A new app with 2 million users just raised $100 million to take on eBay". Fortune. 2015-09-03. Retrieved 2016-06-18.
  7. ^ "letgo Merges with Wallapop; Raises $100M". FinSMEs. 2016-05-12. Retrieved 2016-06-18.
  8. ^ Gleeson, Bridget (2015-05-27). "Meet the Argentine Tech Entrepreneur Who Started His Own Emerging-Art Incubator". Artsy. Retrieved 2016-06-14.
  9. ^ Loizos, Connie (11 May 2016). "Naspers Plants a Flag in U.S., with New Venture Group". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2016-06-18.
  10. ^ a b Lunden, Ingrid; Lomas, Natasha (2016-05-10). "Wallapop and LetGo, two Craigslist rivals, merge to take on the U.S. market, raise $100M more". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2016-06-18.
  11. ^ Geron, Tomio. "Letgo buys fellow mobile classifieds startup Wallapop". MarketWatch. Retrieved 2016-06-18.
  12. ^ Shieber, Jonathan (17 January 2017). "Letgo raises $175 million for its used goods marketplace". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2 May 2017.
  13. ^ Shieber, Jonathan (17 January 2017). "Letgo raises $175 million for its used goods market". TechCrunch. Retrieved 8 October 2018.
  14. ^ Pahwa, Aashish (2 October 2017). "LetGo Business Model: How does LetGo Make Money?". Feedough.com. Retrieved 8 October 2018.
  15. ^ a b Merced, Michael J. De La (2015-09-03). "South Africa's Naspers Backs Smartphone Start-Up Letgo". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2016-06-15.
  16. ^ a b "How Classifieds Startup Letgo Aims To Help Americans Get Rid Of Their Useless Stuff". Co.Create. Fast Company. 2016-02-08. Retrieved 2016-06-19.
  17. ^ Dua, Tanya (2016-04-21). "Letgo's new tool lets users make blockbuster ads to sell their junk - Digiday". Digiday. Retrieved 2016-06-19.
  18. ^ "Letgo smartphone app looks to disrupt online classifieds market in Canada". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 2017-01-02.
  19. ^ Moe, Sigrid. "Argentinsk seriegründer går til kamp mot finn.no". E24. Retrieved 2017-01-02.
  20. ^ Drozdiak, Natalia (9 September 2019). "Naspers Prepares to List Global Empire From Ads to Tencent". Bloomberg. Retrieved 30 October 2019.
  21. ^ a b "LetGo, the 2nd-hand shopping app, raises another $500M at over a $1.5B valuation". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2018-09-10.
  22. ^ "EBay Rival Letgo Touts Sales Growth as VCs Foot the Bill". Bloomberg.com. 2016-08-25. Retrieved 2017-01-02.
  23. ^ a b Perez, Sarah (22 January 2018). "Letgo takes on Craigslist with addition of housing listings". TechCrunch. Retrieved 14 April 2018.
  24. ^ "LetGo, the 2nd-hand shopping app, raises another $500M at over a $1.5B valuation". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2018-09-10.
  25. ^ Hartmans, Avery (20 September 2017). "Billion-dollar startup Letgo is becoming the go-to app for selling your stuff — here's how it works". Business Insider. Retrieved 14 April 2018.
  26. ^ Griffith, Erin (14 August 2018). "$100 Million Was Once Big Money for a Start-Up. Now, It's Common". The New York Times. Retrieved 8 October 2018.
  27. ^ Noto, Anthony (16 August 2018). "Secondhand marketplace app Letgo scores $500M from Naspers". Biz Journals. Retrieved 8 October 2018.
  28. ^ "Letgo CEO and key executive team". Craft. Retrieved 25 February 2020.
  29. ^ "letgo Appoints First CPO and CFO". Business Wire. 2019-09-19. Retrieved 2020-02-25.
  30. ^ a b Perez, Sarah (2015-09-03). "Mobile App Letgo Raises $100 Million From Naspers To Take Over Classifieds In The U.S." TechCrunch. Retrieved 2016-06-14.
  31. ^ Gartenberg, Chaim (22 January 2018). "Craiglist competitor Letgo adds housing sales to its secondhand marketplace". The Verge. Vox Media. Retrieved 22 January 2018.
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