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SA's 'Gumtree for gamers' sees massive growth

Johannesburg - Local website GamesTrader has become a hub to buy, sell and trade video game titles for consoles online. 

The concept was the brainchild of avid gamer, Danie Barnard, who said since the site launched on 11 April this year, it has seen exponential growth. 

“As we know, purchasing games in South Africa is very costly. What many gamers do is to trade games or buy secondhand games from one another,” Barnard told Fin24. 

He acknowledged that while trading platforms such as OLX and Gumtree did exist, there was no official platform for gamers to trade and sell their games. 

Barnard said that GamesTrader has become an online marketplace for gamers by gamers, to help sell, buy, swap or trade their favourite video games, as this was previously done only via Facebook and gamer WhatsApp groups. 

“The site has seen massive growth since the launch two weeks ago as there is no other platform like this and there is a huge demand for something like this,” he reckoned.

READ: SA gaming industry 'suffering' under regulation

Much like other trading platforms, GamesTrader doesn’t charge users for usage of the platform.

“We do not charge our users to list or sell/trade on the platform. It was designed to help gamers, not to make money,” Barnard said. 

“The user experience is smooth and we have received a lot of praise from users. When you sign up you have a dashboard which shows your stats, how much you spent on games, how much you earned and how many clicks your listings have,” he added.  

Typically, users who have been using the site are linked with one another via the website through a private chat feature, after which users can set up a meeting or discuss payment - as with online platforms like Gumtree.

Barnard said the site has over 1000 gamers signed up and currently sees over 7000 visits weekly. 

“The website is very secure and easy to use and we will be launching an app for iOS and Android users soon,” he told Fin24. 

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