Enthusiasm Over Kijiji Has A Familiar Ring

from the meg-vs.-craig dept

Fri, Jul 6th 2007 2:57pm — Joseph Weisenthal

This week, eBay announced that it would launch a domestic version of Kijiji, its free classified ads service, which inevitably draws comparisons to Craigslist (25% owned by eBay). The company has a big challenge cut out for itself, particularly considering the loyalty that Craigslist has among its users. But analysts are already excited about Kijiji's potential. In a research note, UBS analyst Benjamin Schachter talked up the potential size of the market and argued that the site could drive usage of PayPal and Skype, as users look for mechanisms to communicate and engage in transactions. Does that sound familiar? It's exactly the same logic behind the Skype acquisition, that usage of it would be boosted by eBay's buyers and sellers. That doesn't seem to have occurred to any significant extent, however. There's nothing wrong with eBay trying to capture a chunk of this market, but any excitement about major profits or synergies seems awfully premature.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

11 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Anonymous Coward, 6 Jul 2007 @ 3:05pm

There's nothing wrong with eBay trying to capture a chunk of this market, but any excitement about major profits or synergies seems awfully premature.

Of course its premature, these are analysts we're dealing with. Mind you if eBay were to link this new startup properly with Paypal, Skype, and eBay itself things would definitely be looking up for them.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 6 Jul 2007 @ 3:20pm

Kiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!!!!!!
Way too many letters that look way too much alike.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 6 Jul 2007 @ 3:38pm

Analysts are BS.

Just buy or sell anything and they (and their companies)make commission money - even if you go bust.

When are people going to wise up? (never I think)
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 6 Jul 2007 @ 3:59pm

Despite the terrible choice for a name Kijiji has got a chance to beat Craiglist (or at least someone else will). Craiglist, as far as I can tell, refuses to innovate (c.f. recent 'visual' browsing debacle). It thinks it can ride its initial success forever. Right now Craiglist is only its user-base, and while that's a powerful thing, switching costs in that type of business are very low, the direction of the wind can change quickly.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
David Binkowski, 6 Jul 2007 @ 5:09pm

Agree with AC
Craigslist has refused to innovate, much the same way Ebay hasn't figured out that there's a cap on how much you can screw your sellers and the demand for useless crap via auctions while beating the Street.

I'm still waiting for Google to join the auction business, because as stated in the first comment, Ebay clearly is clueless on how to integrate existing properties. Give them a year, they'll owe a 50% market share and then in classic Ebay fashion ruin the site by charging for it. Either that or they'll take one in the behind and offer up Google ads to earn revenue.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Ambo, 6 Jul 2007 @ 5:12pm

Re: Kiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!!!!!!
I totally agree!!!!!!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
mike, 6 Jul 2007 @ 7:36pm

kijiji is way better
I have been using Kijiji for a while now, its MUCH better than craigslist, in fact almost ANYTHING is better tham craigslist, I think I have about 6 ads a month running on kijiji, and not only is it easier to use, it also looks WAY more professional and seems to have more traffic (at least my local ads get more) than craigslist.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
David Binkowski, 6 Jul 2007 @ 7:43pm

Re: kijiji is way better
I've looked around and there are barely any listings on Kijiji. I'm calling bullshit on this one, folks. In fact, in checking my former hometown of Detroit's listings, this wonderful spam came up under electronics: I'm not saying Craigslist doesn't get spam, but it's a bit early to declare it way better considering it's barely even being used. On top of that, some of the most popular Craigslist categories, like, musical instruments, aren't even listed on Kijiji. Let's not say that because it has colors or you work for Ebay that it's a better site, mmmmkay?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 7 Jul 2007 @ 12:21am

Re: Re: kijiji is way better
Kijiji has been live in other countries for several years. Check out the site across the river in Windsor: http://windsor.kijiji.ca/f-Default-W0QQCatIdZ0QQForceZtrue - almost 13,000 ads.
Kijiji is a much better site than CL and so much easier to use - once it gets some wind in its sails in the U.S., you'll be singing a different tune.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
wondermike, 7 Jul 2007 @ 11:41am

Craigslist attitude to serve the public
Craigslist is run with the idea of the organization serving the public good instead of focused on attempting to generate as much revenue as possible. Wonder how grating that must be to the investors behind Ebay.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
puzzled, 25 Jul 2007 @ 1:11pm

Real Estate for Sale
What does Kijiji charge if real estate is sold from ad or otherwise. I know there has to be a charge but darned if I can find it in their policy.
HH
[ link to this | view in thread ]