About us

International Classified Marketplace Association (ICMA) has now become DMA - Digital Marketplaces Association and is the global leading community of leading players in the digital marketplaces industry.

DMA is and will continue to be focused exclusively on providing top executives and decision-makers with a valuable instrument for business growth in digital marketplaces.

DMA’s community has recognized the need to act together to build the capabilities and support its members to respond effectively to the many challenges facing our Industry. We are dedicated to promoting excellence, co-operation, networking, market leadership, innovation and information-exchange at every level amongst our international membership.

This is the essence of DMA's mission - to gather diverse perspectives from around the globe.

About DMA

History

In 1986 a small group of visionary free-ads paper publishers founded a trade association, FAPIA (Free Ads Papers International Association), dedicated to the sharing of information and creative ideas to benefit the classified media publishers and their companies. This visionary group decided to extend their ground-breaking business model to the international sphere, and developed an advanced electronic system to offer international advertising services to their local readers, in the beginning, entirely free of charge.

It was a revolutionary concept: “I’ll publish ads from your customers if you publish mine.” From this basis of friendly cooperation, a brilliant international advertising service was established in December 1986 and is hosted on a new web-based platform called PHOENIX.

FAPIA offered its members the opportunity to provide their readers with a service to place, electronically, classified private and commercial ads worldwide, and to work together to help each other do better business.

A large number of major classified paper publishers from all continents of the world joined this dynamic association. The Association has developed far beyond its initial ad-exchanging remit and has evolved into a networking hub which holds conferences, meetings and workshops, conducts bench-marking studies, and acts as a significant resource of classified media expertise.

In January 2002, the members voted to open up the Association to accept other types of classified advertising publishers rather than just traditional free ads papers. This includes online classified sites, online marketplaces, niche publications… any kind of legal entity publishing at least one periodical whose main purpose is primarily and predominantly to provide classified advertising.

In April 2003, this was underlined by the change of the name of the Association to ICMA – International Classified Media Association, which celebrated its 20th anniversary at the General Meeting in Munich in November 2006.

ICMA was later rebranded to include online marketplaces, becoming the International Classifieds Marketplaces Association.

At the Amsterdam November 2007 conference the dedicated “Sharing Best Practice” session was implemented and has expanded to cover Sales and Technology along with the ever popular Business Leaders session. Sharing Best Practice dedicated sessions are continuously the highest rated of the conferences, allowing members to benchmark themselves directly with their competition in a relaxed and open environment which results in many stimulating and animated discussions.

Starting with 2023, International Classified Marketplace Association (ICMA) has become DMA – Digital Marketplaces Association. We will be celebrating 40 years of existence in 2026.

DMA continues as a democratic, international non profit-making association of companies operating websites carrying classified advertising and online marketplaces which is dedicated to promoting excellence, co-operation and networking, market leadership, and innovation and information-exchange at every level amongst its growing membership.

DMA Head Office is located in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and the Honorary President is Mike Abbott, founder of the Buy & Sell paper in Vancouver, Canada.

Joonas Pihlajamaa - Chairperson

Director, Insight & Analytics at Schibsted Nordic Marketplaces

Mike Berger

Head of Digital Marketplaces, CEO Styria Digital Marketplaces Gmbh

Lucian Luncan

Managing Partner at Publi24 and Quoka.de

Sebastian Kiefer

CEO at KüchenAtlas Portal Betriebs GmbH

Branimir Gajic

CEO and Co-Owner Infostud grupa, Serbia

Board of Directors

The DMA Board of Directors consists of a Chairman, Secretary, Treasurer and 5 other members, elected by the members every 2 years. Our Board members who are either Owners or Managing Directors of member organisations, work with DMA on a voluntary basis. The Board represent members interests, provide information on the classified marketplace industry to Head Office, and are responsible for the strategic direction of the association. They meet at the bi-annual conferences and as necessary throughout the year,