Type of business Private company Headquarters Poznań, Poland Founded 1999, Poznań, Poland | Type of site online auction Founder Arjan Bakker Parent organizations Naspers, Tradus | |
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Area served Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Bosnia & Herzegovina Owner Cinven, Permira, Mid Europa Partners Key people Arjan Bakker, CEO
Grzegorz Brochocki, COO Industry Auctions, Electronic commerce Profiles | ||
Allegro ([aˈlɛɡrɔ]) is a Polish online auction website.
Contents
Is managed by Grupa Allegro (Allegro Group) which was formed in 1999 and subsequently purchased by online auction site QXL Ricardo plc in March 2000. QXL was soon acquired by Tradus which in turn was acquired by Naspers in 2008. In October 2016 Naspers sold the Allegro Group to an alliance of investor funds: Cinven, Permira and Mid Europa Partners
Immensely popular in Poland, Allegro is ranked 251st among the world's most used online websites by Alexa Internet, and is ranked 5th within Poland (as of January 2017).
In 2011, Allegro claimed to have over 11 million users.
Sister sites
Following up on the success of Allegro, its subsequent owners went to open a number of localised auction sites in other countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia:
Controversies about commenting system
According to Allegro regulations article 11.6 it is not necessary for a comment to be truthful, which may lead to their abuse. In 2008, a court in Łomża, Poland, ordered a buyer to apologise for submitting an untruthful comment about a seller.
In order to avoid receiving negative comments, users either don’t leave any comments or leave falsely positive comments to counterparties. This makes the comments an unreliable source of information about the credibility of members.
Comments on the Allegro cannot exceed 250 characters and cannot be supported by photos and any links.
2016 Christmas ad
Allegro's 3 minute 2016 Christmas advertisement featured an elderly Polish man teaching himself English in order to communicate with the granddaughter he is about to meet for the first time when he visits his son in London for Christmas. It was highly praised on social media and has been viewed over 13 million times on YouTube.