In the 1990s, a young graduate searching for a job, a flat or a car would turn to the newspaper classifieds. Buy the paper, circle a few ads, phone an agent and hope for the best. Classifieds mattered deeply, especially for young families and first-time entrants into the economy.
That world has changed beyond recognition. The first transformation came in the early 2000s as classifieds moved online. The medium changed from newsprint to screen, but the social purpose remained: giving people access to trusted platforms for life’s most important transactions, regardless of standing.
South Africa’s consumers are under extraordinary pressure. Two consecutive years of bracket creep have silently eroded take-home pay.
This is where digital classifieds function as economic infrastructure for an increasingly digital world.
In a country where new vehicle prices have outpaced wage growth for over a decade, and where property remains the primary vehicle for household wealth creation, secondary markets aren’t a fallback: they are the market.
The ability to compare thousands of pre-owned vehicles nationally, to benchmark a listed price against real-time data, to interrogate property values before committing to decades of bond repayments; these capabilities fundamentally redistribute market power toward consumers who have historically had the least of it.
Technology is not going to automate marketplaces out of existence; they will be augmented, accelerated and amplified by intelligence
The scale bears this out. Residential property transfers, the majority of which occur in the secondary market, are estimated to have grown 9.5% over 2025. In a fiscally constrained economy, the platforms that make secondary markets efficient, transparent and trustworthy are not simply enabling transactions. They are underwriting economic participation.
What is transforming these platforms from directories into genuine economic infrastructure is AI. The shift from print to digital was the first revolution; from static listings to AI-powered intelligent marketplaces is the second.
In many ways, two sectors that define middle-class aspiration in South Africa — automotive and property — illustrate what happens when technology is deployed not just to digitise, but to democratise.
In automotive, South Africa’s shift from static classified listings to AI-driven marketplaces is starting to close a long-standing information gap. When buyers and sellers have access to the same data, real-time pricing, vehicle history and market trends, the power dynamic changes.
AutoTrader’s recent launch of AI-powered tools, built on three decades of transaction data, is one example of this: personalised recommendations for buyers, automated market insights for dealers and thousands of hours of manual work eliminated. In an economy where information asymmetry has historically disadvantaged consumers, platforms that make complexity disappear aren’t a convenience; they’re a correction.
In property, the question is structural: how does a market that has traditionally rewarded insiders become accessible to the 7-million South Africans searching for homes each month: many of them first-time buyers or tenants?
Classifieds have always reflected how economies connect and evolve. Today they sit at the intersection of consumer pressure, entrepreneurial ambition and AI-driven innovation
The answer is emerging through a combination of algorithmic advertising, AI-powered tenant screening, and WhatsApp-based communication that meets people where they are.
We have built much of this infrastructure, but what may matter more in the long run is what’s happened alongside it: financial and technical support extended to more than 1,800 small independent agencies, a significant share of them black-owned. That’s inclusion delivered through infrastructure rather than subsidy, the kind of structural enablement that compounds.
Every rand, maximised. The impact extends beyond individual consumers. Intelligent marketplaces help SMEs shift to data-driven strategies, support informal traders entering formal digital spaces and give micro-entrepreneurs the kind of national reach that once required a shopfront and advertising budget. In an economy where growth must be broad-based and private-sector-led, these platforms are doing the quiet work of connecting supply to demand across every income bracket.
The next chapter depends on whether South Africa creates the right enabling environment — continued investment in digital infrastructure, particularly in underserved areas where connectivity remains patchy; clear and supportive regulation; responsible AI governance; and programmes that help small businesses formalise and digitise.
Classifieds have always reflected how economies connect and evolve. Today they sit at the intersection of consumer pressure, entrepreneurial ambition and AI-driven innovation.
Technology is not going to automate marketplaces out of existence; they will be augmented, accelerated and amplified by intelligence, giving South Africans the tools to do what they have always done in tough times — find value, create opportunity and build resilience, one transaction at a time.
• Naidoo is CEO of OLX South Africa and Mienie is CEO of AutoTrader
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