Online classifieds portal Quikr blatantly endorses black marketing in new Facebook ad

Xiaomi, Yu and now Lenovo flash sales have given rise to black marketing across classifieds portals like eBay India, OLX and Quikr. Many buyers who manage to buy the smartphones in these flash sales, resell it at a premium amount. This unhealthy and unfair practice begun since Xiaomi frenzy started in the country, and has continued ever since. These classified portals haven’t really done much to stop this practice, however they haven’t really gone out and openly endorsed black marketing either. However, Quikr’s latest ad on Facebook sees the company boasting about black marketing, and placing itself to be a portal where you can find gadgets that otherwise get sold out in seconds in online flash sales.

Quikr’s latest ad features the image of a Xiaomi smartphone, and the tagline reads ‘Out of stock? Find it on Quikr!’ This indicates that Quikr is blatantly endorsing the unfair practises of black marketing. Quikr is home to many users selling these online flash sale devices like Xiaomi’s Redmi Note 4G, Lenovo’s A6000 and Micromax-backed Yu Yureka smartphones being sold at a premium rate.

Xiaomi’s India head Manu Kumar Jain had spoken about this unfortunate practice, and had said that it also approached these classified portals to pull down these ads. Some obliged, while some continued to sell them. He also said that “There is not much they could do about this matter,” as there is no way they could stop sellers from reselling their devices.

Quikr was launched in July 2008 and is currently present in 900 cities across India providing an online platform for users to sell or rent goods ranging from mobiles, real estate, cars, services, jobs, entertainment, furniture and electronics.

The site currently has ads from various sellers black marketing the Xiaomi Redmi Note 4G for as high as Rs 11,500, the Yu Yureka at Rs 14,999, and the Lenovo A6000 is going for Rs 9,000. The original price of the Xiaomi Redmi Note 4G is Rs 9,999, the Yu Yureka is Rs 8,999 and the Lenovo A6000 costs Rs 6,999.

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