Started as a classified publishing company in 1992 in Gauteng province in South Africa, Junk Mail has evolved to embrace the use of internet to help business people sell and buy services and goods.

Considered the kings of classifieds in South Africa, the company has over the last three years, undergone an expansion programme across Africa, setting up in countries such as Kenya and Nigeria.

Felix Erken, the managing director for Junk Mail, speaks of how the company survived the internet revolution.

VINCENT MATINDE: When did Junk Mail start?

FELIX ERKEN: It was started in 1992 in South Africa. It started as a print publication because the internet wasn’t the mainstream channel yet.

VINCENT MATINDE: Why a free classified site?

FELIX ERKEN: We have a great hunger for new opportunities. We just saw that the internet was going to be a game changer and change the world. If we didn’t embrace this early we would penalise the business. We knew print wasn’t going to be our future business.

VINCENT MATINDE: Why the name Junk Mail?

FELIX ERKEN: It is probably in hindsight. It means direct marketing media that no one really asks for. Like the ones you get in the post mail. It is advertising. It is a “derogatory” term but it’s a name that sticks. At first it hurt us because business people said “I don’t have junk”. But as we grew the name Junk Mail became associated with success. It was a contradiction. Now I wouldn’t change it for the world.

VINCENT MATINDE: How do you make money?

FELIX ERKEN: We build up a community of people who are trading. We give value added services for pay. For example if you are selling furniture and there is a massive community of people buying and selling furniture, our value added service will be for us to provide you with better exposure, and basically make you stand out more than the masses. For that we charge.

VINCENT MATINDE: How does the service work?

FELIX ERKEN: You can go on your mobile phone or online write a description, put up a photo of what you are selling and in five minutes your ad will be out to thousands of people. It is easy. You have to make it easy for people to start engaging on the site.

VINCENT MATINDE: Mocality had a similar model and it did not work, why will it work with Junk Mail?

FELIX ERKEN: They did not do it well because it wasn’t a classified sites but a directory of businesses. But that is just a database of names and numbers. That’s why it didn’t work with Mocality. You do not build these businesses overnight. You need a community of active buyers and sellers. We have been doing this for 21 years and we have a massive community of buyers and sellers.

VINCENT MATINDE: How is Junk Mail different from its competitors?

FELIX ERKEN: What makes Junk Mail very unique we are the longest online platform since 1996. We are local and based here. We understand the market and we are able to react to the needs quicker because there is a lot of competition here and most are international sites. But we have to stay humble, stay hungry to grow.

But we also have proofreaders who check the materials being posted. We have to make sure the posts are ethically right.

VINCENT MATINDE: How many employees does the company have?

FELIX ERKEN: We used to be a publishing company and then we had over 1000 employees, but now that we are online we have 400 staff members. We used to also have a distribution company that we had to let go of the company.

VINCENT MATINDE: What is the landscape for the company across Africa?

FELIX ERKEN: We have expanded to two markets already. We haven’t don’t much there yet but we are planting seeds. We have Junk Mail for the eastern Region and we have been in Kenya for three years. We have a relationship with Capital FM in Nairobi. We also have launched in Nigeria and we still need to expand our footprint.

VINCENT MATINDE: Are there new features that you would want to introduce to the service?

FELIX ERKEN: Of course the classified business we are facilitating buyers and sellers. There is many more things that now technology allows the users experience to make it more efficient. In the future there will be a lot more revenue streams that can be derived from. We might allow others to provide transaction services for a commission in the future.

VINCENT MATINDE: How do you feel about e-commerce in Africa?

FELIX ERKEN: E-commerce in South Africa is accepted. People trust it and our infrastructure makes e-commerce as secure as it is anywhere else in the world. It is a massive growth market in South Africa. It is not like that in Kenya and Nigeria because there are trust issues, but it will come. It is going to be a massive growth area in Africa in the coming future.

VINCENT MATINDE: How many users do you have on the platform?

FELIX ERKEN: We have 2.7 million unique visitors across all our platforms. 50% is on desktop and 49% on mobile devices. Two years ago web was three times of mobile. So mobile is on a growth path. There are some users who post hourly and some once every two years.

VINCENT MATINDE: What is the most important interesting lesson that you have learnt over the years at Junk Mail?

FELIX ERKEN: Nothing has changed, and yet everything has changed. That means when we started we were a print business. We published classified papers, but now we are not publishers and the business model has completely changed. A lot of our types of businesses went out of business because they didn’t recognize in time that they weren’t in the publishing business. So when the internet came they would have seen an opportunity. But most saw the internet as threat and eventually died.

Nothing has changed: We bring buyers and sellers together. And everything has changed: in the last 20 years we had to change with the times to the internet.

VINCENT MATINDE: Any parting shot to budding entrepreneurs in Africa?

FELIX ERKEN: They must just go for it. They must not over think anything. They must trust themselves. This continent is a massive opportunity hotspot for any one. Never in the history of the world has there been an opportunity for great growth.