Understand any stock in simple English
Enter a ticker to learn what the company does and how it makes money.
Avito
Avito runs Russia's biggest online classifieds marketplace, where people buy and sell almost anything, from used cars and apartments to clothes and furniture.
Avito is Russia's giant online classifieds board — the place millions of people go to sell a used car, find an apartment to rent, hire a plumber, or flip an old sofa. Instead of owning any inventory, it simply connects buyers and sellers and takes a cut or a fee for the connection.
The core of the business is the listing fee. A private person can post most things for free, but professionals — car dealers, real estate agents, shops — pay to post more, to stand out, or to promote a listing. There is also a paid-delivery and payments service that helps people buy from strangers without leaving the site, and Avito takes a small slice of those transactions. On top of that, Avito sells advertising, which is a growing chunk of revenue. The whole thing is a classic marketplace: more sellers bring more buyers, which brings more sellers, a flywheel that has made Avito the default place Russians look first. The company is not publicly traded. It has passed through several owners over the years. Naspers, the South African media and internet giant, bought into Avito early through its classifieds arm, and later the business was folded into Prosus. In 2019 a consortium led by the Russian bank Sberbank — then briefly rebranded Sber — took a stake, and the ownership has shifted again since. These changes matter because they show how valuable and strategic the platform is: it is one of the few Russian internet businesses with genuine network effects and a dominant position that is very hard to dislodge.
Avito's real strength is trust and scale. In a country where a lot of commerce has historically been informal, Avito made buying from a stranger feel normal — you check the seller's profile, you look at photos and ratings, and increasingly you pay and get delivery through the platform. Competitors have tried to copy it, and foreign giants eyed the market, but Avito's lead in listings and its habit of being the first place people check have kept it on top. Its main vulnerability is the economy around it: if Russian consumers are cautious and advertising budgets tighten, listing and promotion spending tends to follow.
Saved answer · last researched 10 Nov 2026