Trade It launches into classifieds market

Hong Kong - One of the founders of Lifestyle Asia has expanded into the online classifieds and trading sectors, launching Trade It for the local market.

TradeIt.com.hk launches today (26 May) with Cantonese and English language and is aiming to attract a broad base of users from working class traders through to high-end investment bankers.

The site will draw on various social media tools including Facebook and Google Maps to broaden its reach and is also offering advertisers some interesting tools. 

User of the site will have access to a "translate function" which allows advertising to switch between Chinese and English language.

Christopher Lindvall, director of Lifestyle Asia and Trade It, said Trade It will bring a new offering to the local trading market and added that there was a lot of room for innovation. 

"We can’t run the same concept over and over again. I can honestly say that I haven’t seen anything similar as the new Trade IT in Hong Kong so far." 

"We are aiming to be the new Craigslist in Asia," he added.

Lindvall added that the new business will open doors to larger advertisers that Lifestyle Asia has typically been immune from.

"The last few weeks has been extremely busy, we're getting over 2,000 new ads per day. If we're able to continue in this tempo I hope that we will compete with the bigger websites within end of this year and it will hopefully return in good ad sales"

And like the Lifestyle Asia, he said expansion would eventually be part of its strategy.

"Like all other companies mainland China is extremely interesting for us," he said.