Adevinta ASA

Creating the world's largest online classifieds company through acquisition of eBay Classifieds Group established #1 market positions across 17 countries covering 1 billion people—network effects achieving escape velocity through strategic consolidation. Adevinta generates approximately $2.1 billion annual revenue operating digital marketplaces in 15 countries, with Q4 2024 online classified revenue surging 14% to EUR 354 million as two-sided platform dynamics compound: more buyers attract sellers, more sellers attract buyers, density creates liquidity that makes the platform indispensable for price discovery and transaction velocity. The company employs 5,409 people managing brands including leboncoin (France), InfoJobs and Milanuncios (Spain), and 50% of OLX Brazil—each platform achieving local dominance through first-mover advantage and subsequent winner-take-most dynamics. Taken private through Aurelia Bidco Norway acquisition, then partially divested when EQT acquired Spanish marketplaces for EUR 2 billion in July 2025, Adevinta demonstrates how digital platforms become valuable enough to fragment through secondary sales, each geographic market functioning as discrete ecosystem where network density matters more than global scale. The pattern mirrors invasive species that achieve dominance through rapid local adaptation: classified platforms succeed not through uniform global offering but through country-specific optimization—payment methods, trust mechanisms, category selection, user interface—tuned to local behavior while maintaining common technical infrastructure. Like mycorrhizal networks that connect trees within forests but operate as distinct networks per geography, Adevinta's marketplaces share technology and expertise while remaining separate competitive entities, each vulnerable to disruption primarily from adjacent platforms (social media, messaging apps) that already possess the local network density.