OLX is a platform for posting online advertisements by individuals and legal entities. All ads on the platform are divided into several main categories:
- Child's world;
- Real estate;
- Transport;
- Spare parts for transport;
- Animals;
- A house and a garden;
- Electronics;
- Fashion & Style;
- Hobbies, recreation and sports;
- I'll give it away for free;
- Exchange;
- Business and services;
- Job.
Thus, the platform allows you to buy, sell or exchange goods, offer or receive services, and find a job.
The OLX service operates in many countries around the world. Its development and coverage of new territories occurred through the rebranding of local online advertising services (changing the name and logo, sometimes redesigning and changing the functionality of the site) or merging with them.
All advertisements, regardless of who they belong to - a private user or a company, are automatically sorted in search results by date of posting. But the OLX platform provides paid services to keep ads in the first positions of the search: “VIP ad”, “Top ad”, “Move to the top of the list”, “Logo in the ad list for 30 days”.
In addition to the website, OLX has mobile applications for iOS and Android. Their functionality is not limited and coincides with the functionality of the browser version of the platform.
Purpose of using a proxy
Company owners and private users who actively trade/promote services through OLX may encounter restrictions from the site. The platform has a limit on posting ads from one account. The only way to get around this limit is to create multiple profiles (multi-account). However, accounts assigned to the same IP address or registered to the same email/phone address may be blocked, especially if they are used simultaneously and from the same device.
Also, the OLX administration can block accounts whose owners use programs to automate actions:
- automatic placement of advertisements;
- automatic search for advertisements and parsing (structuring the collected information) of its results.
The proxy will provide the user with the following options:
- protection against banning of the entire network of accounts when using special software for automation (if the service’s algorithms see suspicious activity on an account, they will only block it, and not the entire network of accounts);
- anonymous access to the service and maintaining data confidentiality;
- posting a large number of similar/identical ads from different accounts.
Selecting a proxy for OLX
To work with OLX, it is better to use mobile proxies. These are proxies that use IP addresses (data about the device, its location and the operator that provides access to the Internet) of cellular operators. Their advantage is that there are several users per mobile operator address, so the active use of such addresses does not raise suspicion among the security algorithms of online platforms. And even if the activity of a user seems suspicious to the algorithm, the IP is unlikely to be blocked, since all users connected to it will suffer.
Mobile proxies in one package contain a pool of 2000–5000 IP addresses and are dynamic. This means that the IP associated with them changes at regular intervals or at the request of the user, so that different accounts of the same person will have different addresses and location information.
Also, when choosing a proxy, it is worth considering that they must be “clean” and not included in the OLX blacklist. Therefore, you should not use free proxies, since they, most likely, have already been used several times and do not inspire trust in the algorithms. It is better to purchase a mobile proxy on a special server.
Conclusion
The OLX platform allows you to sell or order goods and services, exchange or gratuitously transfer things/provide services, search for and offer jobs. The service is available to both private users and business owners. The latter can register their company and receive an individual business page address.
User interaction occurs through posting advertisements and responding to them. However, the online platform sets a limit on the number of ads added from one account and blocks profiles if they are registered to the same IP. Therefore, for those who are actively promoting their goods and services through OLX, it is better to use a proxy to reduce the risk of account blocking.
