eBay: Taking on Craigslist with Kijiji?
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Written By Emily Koh | July 5, 2007 | Share This
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Yesterday eBay quietly launched its international online classifieds site, Kijiji, in the U.S.
Kijiji — which means “village” in Swahili — is currently the market leader in Canada, Germany, Italy and Taiwan, and is now available in 220 cities across the United States, according to the New York Times.
Kijiji’s primary competitor is Craigslist, the leading classified ads site in the U.S. Though Kijiji listings are currently free, it may follow Craigslist’s example and offer premium listings in the future. Kijiji will also have ads provided by Yahoo, as part of Yahoo and eBay’s existing U.S. partnership.
What makes this a rather curious move is that eBay partially owns Craigslist, having acquired a 25% stake in it in 2004, and is also a member of the three-person board. eBay spokesman Hani Durzy told CNET, “We have a minority ownership and that’s not going away. We’re happy with that investment, both financially and strategically.”
Ashkan Karbasfrooshan of WatchMojo.com is suggesting eBay will eventually buy out Craigslist:
“While Craig Newmark might not say so, one day, he’ll get tired of being the CSR extraordinaire at Craigslist and want to sell. Trust me, it’s a matter of time. He won’t sell to MSFT, won’t sell to Yahoo!, won’t sell to Google, either. Not sure beneath the bravado Jim Buckmaster or Craig appreciated Google Base. What’s Google Base? Exactly.
You might have forgotten, but Craig has not forgiven.
He’ll sell one day, and it will be to eBay.”
How Kijiji will operate in conjunction with Craigslist is still up for speculation. eBay needs to either differentiate Kijiji from Craigslist significantly enough that they don’t compete within the same market, or work out a merger. As it stands, the existing differences between Kijiji and Craigslist’s ad revenues and fees for premium listings seem too minor to nullify competition.
Topics: Craigslist, ECommerce |
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kijiji is a pretty bad name.
Kijiji would really need to do some doing to beat Craigslist. CL enjoys high customer confidence and satisfaction. Kijiji may never be able to beat CL. However, as a user I feel that craigslist should make some changes to the site, maybe try some vibrant,lively colours. CL just looks plain and dull.