Oct. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Naspers Ltd., Africa’s largest media group, bought online advertising company Slando from Michael Pennington and Simon Crookall, the founders of Gumtree, they said in a statement.

The site, with 11 million users in eastern Europe and Russia, was sold for an undisclosed price to Cape Town-based Naspers. Slando brought the idea of flat-sharing to Russia and has hosted advertisements for items of Stalin’s clothing, diamonds and an entire oil refinery, according to the statement.

“We spotted a massive opportunity in Eastern Europe and Russia, particularly because Internet usage was so low,” Pennington said in the statement. “Over the past few years it has grown exponentially and will continue to do so.”

Gumtree.com is the largest classified site in Britain with 13.7 million visitors every month, according to its site.

--Editors: Cecile Gutscher, Torrey Clark

To contact the reporter on this story: Catherine Airlie in London at cairlie@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephen Voss at sev@bloomberg.net