We leverage AI and ML for personalisation, fraud detection, and content moderation, to enable enhanced security and user engagement: Bhajan Poonia, CTO, OLX India
Bhajan Poonia, CTO of OLX India, reveals to Express Computer in an exclusive interview, the transformative trends and technological advancement that is driving the change in online marketplaces. He talks about how OLX India is staying ahead in a competitive landscape through cutting-edge technologies like AI and ML to deliver personalised user experiences, fraud detection, and building trust.
The interview highlights OLX’s commitment to making safety a top priority through proactive measures and advanced moderation tools as well as collaboration with law enforcement agencies. This insightful discussion also details the company’s roadmap to innovation, with exciting developments like AI-driven recommendations, AR-based product previews, and sustainability initiatives within the circular economy.
In such a rapidly changing technological and consumer behaviour landscape, what are the major industry trends shaping the future of online marketplaces and how is OLX India staying ahead of this curve?
The future of online marketplaces is led by key trends, including enhanced trust and safety, AI and ML integration, and personalised user experiences. The platforms are increasingly becoming tech-savvy about using verified profiles, safe chat options, and AI-driven moderation to ensure secure transactions and build trust among users. Here, AI and ML play their significant roles in fraud detection, content moderation, and personalisation of recommendations based on a user’s behaviour.
At OLX India, we take these technologies to provide an enhanced security and user engagement layer. Our strategies encompass the verified profiles, secure chat, and AI moderation toward trust and safety while featuring AI and ML-based tools for fraud detection and moderation. At OLX, we work at providing a personalised experience as well, through search results and pricing recommendations enabled through AI. By continuously utilising such emerging technologies, OLX stays competitive within the marketplace.
How does OLX India evolve its technology stack to meet the increasing demands of this diverse and dynamic user base?
OLX India has changed its technology stack to meet the needs of a diverse user base. It uses modern, scalable technologies such as Java, Go, and Python to run the platform on AWS, making it reliable and scalable. We use Kubernetes for the efficient management of the platform and advanced databases like MySQL and Redis to optimise data storage and performance.
We have also undertaken large-scale modernisation of infrastructure by doing extensive refactoring of the code. This has made our platform migrate legacy applications and services from PHP to Java, significantly enhancing its performance, maintainability, and scalability while delivering a seamless and robust user experience.
How is OLX utilising AI and machine learning in order to enhance personalisation and improve user experiences throughout its platform?
AI and machine learning are a fundamental part of enhancing personalisation and improving user experiences at OLX. We apply AI algorithms to analyse the behaviour of users, search history, and preferences in order to provide personalised search results and product recommendations. Our AI models also give dynamic pricing suggestions based on market trends, demand, and user behaviour to ensure transparency and trust in transactions.
Besides, machine learning algorithms proactively detect fraudulent listings by analyzing ad content, images, and prices, ensuring high-quality content on our platform. AI also comes with behavioural insights that help it predict the user’s preference, enabling personalised experiences and tailored notifications and promotions, thus encouraging user engagement and retention.
What are some of the major challenges maintaining scalability and performance for OLX’s platform and how did you address them?
It is very difficult to maintain scalability and performance in such a high-traffic environment, but OLX ensures this by implementing strategic technologies and best practices. Hosting on AWS enables us to scale our infrastructure dynamically during peaks in traffic, ensuring the high availability and performance. Our architecture is built to scale using microservices and modular frameworks that can take increased loads seamlessly.
We improve speed and lighten the database load through caching mechanisms, ensuring reliability with robust fallback mechanisms and tolerance systems, thus enabling it to function uninterruptedly during downtimes or failures. These strategies allow OLX to deliver a reliable, high-performance platform to meet the growing needs of our user base.
One of the main issues associated with online marketplaces is fraud and lack of trust. What new technologies or strategies is OLX implementing in order to ensure its platform remains safe and trustworthy for its users?
OLX places much emphasis on trust and safety. We provide consumers with education on safety through videos, proactive fraud prevention, and rigorous verification of the buyer and seller. We ensure that our rules and filters combined with AI tools are effective to detect and remove fraudsters and inappropriate content.
We actively monitor user behaviour for real-time safety and maintain strict policies to address suspicious activities, with measures like account suspension or bans. Collaboration with law enforcement agencies and data-driven insights enhance our platform’s safety. Our dedicated support helpline and safety email are available 24/7 to assist users, ensuring a secure and trustworthy environment.
As CTO, what would be your key priorities and focus areas for driving innovation at OLX India, and what exciting developments can users and the industry expect in the near future?
As CTO, our priorities are using AI and machine learning to enhance personalisation, fraud detection, content moderation, relevant listings and a secure marketplace. Investments were made in scalability and performance for stability during peak traffic periods. Users’ engagement is reflected in a smarter search functionality and push notifications that make the platform more intuitive.
Emerging innovations in blockchain, AR, and IoT are currently being explored to unlock more value for customers. There are potential AR features for better product visualisation in the near future. Some of the upcoming developments include AI-powered recommendations, an enhanced mobile experience, and AR product previews. In addition, we are committed to sustainability, promoting pre-owned products to contribute to the circular economy.
