Amid the ongoing debate surrounding the future of classifieds platforms in the AI Search era, CarTrade founder Vinay Sanghi has said that the company’s vast database spanning consumers, products, and prices gives it a distinct advantage over AI platforms or other horizontal players in the auto classifieds space.
The CarTrade CEO further stated that large language models (LLMs) cannot “duplicate” the car-buying journey it offers consumers, from selling a vehicle to securing a loan to purchasing a car and other value-added products. Citing the example of CarWale, he said a user can get a car loan approved on the platform within a second, something an LLM cannot replicate.
According to Sanghi, the different types of data the auto marketplace collects across its CarWale, BikeWale, and OLX platforms is also a major differentiator compared with LLMs, which he claimed can access only public data.
“… The strength we’ve got is when we look at AI products within our experience for users, we obviously have public data. We obviously have our own public data. We have our own private data, and we have our own private consumer or customer data. All of that is being used to give a better response to the user. LLMs have only public data. They don’t get to see all the other three levels of data. As much as they’re a technology company, they’re a data warehouse for the automotive industry,” Sanghi said during the Q3 FY26 post-earnings call.
Does CarTrade Allow AI Bots To Scrape Data?
During the Q3 FY26 earnings conference call, an analyst pointed out that some content owners and websites have entered licensing agreements with AI companies that allow those companies to scrape data for a fee. When asked if CarTrade is sharing content with AI bots, Sanghi said the company does not share proprietary content with any LLM developers.
“… No, we don’t share proprietary content or our own data with LLMs at all. In any licensing arrangement, we think the data we’ve got, the brand we have, and the platform we have is a differentiator or is differentiated, and we would not want to be licensing or sharing it with anybody else,” the CarTrade founder said.
However, he said the company has started leveraging AI to enhance user experience across its CarWale and OLX platforms. For instance, if a user lists a product on OLX and uploads a photograph of something else, AI will flag that it is the wrong product.
“There’s a lot of pricing information. So if you go to CarWale today and you’re buying a used car, it will immediately guide you and tell you what price you should pay, which is all done intelligently. As you know, used-car pricing is an extremely complicated exercise, and this is all done through AI. So there are multiple interventions, but it’s a long, long way to go. It’s just the beginning of AI interventions in the business,” he said.
How the Broader Classifieds Industry Sees AI Search
Sanghi expressed a similar stance in the previous quarter’s earnings call. At the time, Sanghi signalled that platform execution mattered more than discovery when a user was deeply involved in the purchase.
However, some classified platforms in the country have expressed concerns, pointing out how chatbots and agentic AI are affecting their businesses. For instance, during the Q2 FY26 earnings call, Info Edge CEO Hitesh Oberoi said that Google’s rollout of AI summaries led to a decline in SEO traffic to Shiksha over the last few quarters.
Earlier this month, MediaNama reported that IndiaMART has stopped sharing traffic data for its platform starting Q3 FY26, citing the proliferation of chatbots and agentic AI.
Nikhil Pahwa, founder and editor at MediaNama, argues that once Google Search fully transitions to AI Mode, businesses won’t just get ranked lower, they will disappear.
“Once Google Search switches to AI mode entirely, the top of the funnel will vanish for most players. The search function that helped identify and allocate intent and demand will no longer exist. Websites will become suppliers of content for AI to repurpose as answers as AI rewires the Internet, without copyright protection,” Pahwa said.
“The content that enables discovery of classifieds services will no longer bring consumers to them because their need for answers is being satisfied upstream. This is an existential threat,” he added.
GST Cuts Fuel Growth In Consumer Business
In an investor presentation, CarTrade Tech said its Consumer Group segment remained the main driver of growth, with revenue rising 27% to Rs 86.3 crore in the December quarter, compared to Rs 68 crore a year earlier. Sequentially, revenue from this division rose 13% from Rs 76.2 crore.
The company added that the unit recorded a 43% EBITDA margin in the quarter, describing it as “a benchmark for excellence in the industry.” Profit from this segment rose 18% to Rs 28.6 crore in Q3 FY26, compared to Rs 24.3 crore in the same quarter of the previous fiscal.
Responding to an analyst query on the impact of GST cuts on cars, Sanghi said that consumer demand, traffic, and buying activity automatically increased on CarWale. As the new-car industry witnesses growth in demand due to lower prices, he expects this demand to spill over into the used-car market over the next 12–15 months.
In September last year, the GST Council had slashed tariffs on small cars to 18% from 28%.
OLX India Maintains Growth Momentum.
Acquired by CarTrade in 2023, OLX India also delivered steady gains. The company said revenue grew 18% year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 58.8 crore during the December quarter, while profit after tax (PAT) surged 37% YoY to Rs 20.2 crore.
“OLX continues its quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) growth trajectory, achieving a 37% EBITDA margin in Q3 FY26,” CarTrade said.
CarTrade also operates Shriram Automall and CarTrade Exchange, which focus on B2B auctions and the resale of used vehicles. The segment primarily caters to institutional sellers and fleet operators, enabling vehicle liquidation through a combination of physical auction yards and digital platforms.
Revenue from the remarketing division climbed 12% YoY to Rs 65.6 crore in Q3 FY26. Sequentially, it rose nearly 5% from Rs 62.6 crore.
The remarketing business clocked a profit of Rs 12.7 crore in the quarter ended December 2025, up 68% from Rs 7.6 crore in the year-ago quarter. On a QoQ basis, profit rose over 28% from Rs 9.9 crore.
Overall, CarTrade reported a profit after tax (PAT) of Rs 61.5 crore in Q3 FY26, up 35% YoY. Sequentially, profit declined 4% from Rs 64.1 crore in the September quarter.
Revenue from operations jumped 19% to Rs 209.7 crore during the quarter under review, compared to Rs 176.2 crore in Q3 FY25. On a QoQ basis, revenue grew over 8% from Rs 193.4 crore.
Key Operational Metrics
Average Monthly Unique Visitors (MAUs): MAUs across CarWale, BikeWale, and CarTrade platforms rose to 55.1 million in Q3 FY26, up from 49 million a year earlier. OLX’s average MAUs declined marginally to 29.8 million from 30 million in Q3 FY25.
Annualised Auction Listing: Annualised auction listing across CarTrade’s remarketing business, which comprises Shriram Automall and CarTrade Exchange, stood at 1.88 million in Q3 FY26, up from 1.5 million in the year-ago quarter.
Annualised Auction Volume: The annual auction volume for CarTrade’s remarketing business stood at 2.68 lakhs units during the December quarter.
Curated by Aisha Patel
