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AutoScout24 runs online marketplaces where people and dealers across Europe buy and sell new and used cars, motorcycles and commercial vehicles.
AutoScout24 is Europe's big online car lot. Instead of driving from dealer to dealer, you open its website or app, type in what you want — a used VW Golf, a family van, a motorbike — and browse listings from private sellers and professional dealers across the continent. The company calls itself a marketplace, but really it is a giant matchmaker: it connects people who want to sell a vehicle with the millions of people looking to buy one.
The money comes mostly from the sellers, not the browsers. Dealers pay to list their stock, and they pay more for tools that make their listings stand out or reach the right buyers. AutoScout24 also sells software that helps dealers manage their inventory and their online ads. For a dealer, the pitch is simple: this is where the buyers already are, so paying to be seen here beats waiting for customers to wander onto the lot. Buyers, meanwhile, get a huge selection and search tools for free. The company has deep roots. It started in the late 1990s as MasterCar.de, then rebranded as AutoScout24 and grew into one of Europe's best-known car classifieds brands. Today its parent, Hellman & Friedman-backed Scout24, keeps the car marketplace business separate from its German property portal, and AutoScout24 operates across markets including Germany, Austria, Italy, the Netherlands and Belgium. That spread matters: car markets differ a lot country to country, so being the default place to shop in several of them is a real moat.
Its main rivals are other classifieds sites and, increasingly, the big tech platforms where people also search for cars. The business is steady rather than glamorous — it earns fees from dealers who need leads, and it does best when lots of people are shopping for cars. The risk is that dealers get choosier about paying for listings, or that a bigger platform muscles in on the car-shopping habit. So far, AutoScout24 has kept its place as the place Europeans go when they want a new set of wheels.
Saved answer · last researched 15 Nov 2026