Classifieds portal, alawooz.com, has launched with an initial investment of AED 50 million.

The company aims to grow its footprint in the UAE by offering value-added services, including extended customer engagement and support tools.

Spokespeople of Alawooz, which is owned by Dubai-based Quick Manage, said the portal offers its services free of charge across a wide range of buy and sell categories from used cars to property and household items, with dedicated sections for local events, announcements, services and activities.

“Our initial focus is to grow our presence in the UAE and later expand to cover the wider Gulf and the Middle East in the second phase,” said Ibrahim Mohammed, General Manager, alawooz.com, adding that the idea behind alawooz.com is to bridge the trust deficit in the online market place by engaging its users through a variety of quick-response and interactive tools.

Beyond commerce, Alawooz is also developing itself into an online community destination where users have an opportunity to connect with each other to share information on in-country activities across a range of topics, such as dance classes, tuition centres for children, or even to promote events by seeking to find an audience from among the Alawooz community.

“We believe that what is needed to make an online community more vibrant is through developing alawooz.com into a user-friendly platform for small businesses and individuals. Creating a portal which allows socialising to the extent of providing an opportunity to foster new friends is also on the Alawooz agenda,” said Marketing Manager, Renu Dhankhar.

Currently Alawooz offers its users free ad placements and also allows users to promote their ads on its social media pages across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Dhankhar said the Alawooz brand plans to serve millions of users in the UAE and the aim is to be first choice for online classifieds with the help of innovative technology and value-added services such as free shipping of products, SMS alerts, missed call service, 24/7 online chat support, and customer care through instant and secure payment gateways.

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