It’s not yet a Craigslist killer, but eBay’s free classifieds site Kijiji is taking off in the U.S. eBay, of course, is also an investor in Craigslist, but its 25 percent stake doesn’t give it a controlling interest and the other 75 percent is not for sale. So in March, 2005, eBay launched Kijiji as its own competing free classifieds site overseas. Then last summer, it launched a U.S. version of the site.
Since then, the U.S. site alone has grown from 362,000 visitors in July, 2007 to 1.8 million in January, according to comScore. (If you count U.S. visits to Kijiji’s international sites as well, the number is 2.3 million). In comparison, Microsoft’s classified site, Windows Live Expo, attracted only 176,000 visitors in January, Yahoo Classifieds attracted 97,000, and neither Google’s classifieds site nor Google Base even registers on comScore.
Kijiji’s visitor stats are still less than 10 percent of the 26.7 million people in the U.S. who went to Craigslist in January, but comScore puts Kijiji as the sixth most visited classifieds site in the U.S. (after Craigslist, sites owned by Dominion Enterprises like Homes.com, AutoTrader, Cars.com, and Apartments.com). Kijiji is ahead of classifieds sites like Oodle (No. 9, with 1.3 million U.S. visitors in January) and Vast (No. 20, with 444,000).
eBay is obviously doing something right with Kijiji. But can it ever catch up to Craigslist?
Relax Poindexter,
Their traffic has taken off for one reason and one reason only. They are advertising out the ass on Adwords. Otherwise, they are failing miserably in the U.S. since soft launch last year. They do OK in a few other countries like Canada and they have other properties like Gumtree do well in english speaking non-US markets like UK, AUS, NZ, SA. They bought out Loquo in Spain which still dominates Spain. They have a few other properties as well.
But trust me dude, they have tried and tried and still getting no traction in the U.S. You are looking at traffic they are paying a high price for and not converting into returning visitors for the most part.
In response to post #47:
Very funny. LOL. What Chinese dialect? Cantonese or Mandarin? Very funny.
In response to post #33:
Good point. What about taking a look at http://Loudheart.com? It is young and currently serving audience in the US, includes all cities and counties in NY.
In response to post #44:
“any ad you put up is likely visible for only a day or so before it is pushed so far down the list you fall off the bit bucket …”
I know what you mean. Have you looked at the craglist for sale > cars+trucks category? You don’t have to wait a day to see your ad away at the bottom. Sellers that have a long list of merchandise to advertise loves craigslist because they hire programmers to write script to automate the data entries. Hence, spam spam spam spam.
I like CL because it is fast and simple. Perhaps, too simple.
Hi we are Dutch but our website http://www.MercadoSite.com is made for Spain and Portugal,
In Holland is a classified advert website called Marktplaats that was our example.
They have 63.000.000 visitors a month, in a small country as Holland with a population from only 16.000.000 people.
6.300.000 people look 13,5 times a month on the site to buy or sell their articles.
A site like this has changed the thinking of a whole population from a recycling to recelling population.
Why is this website not mentioned in your article ?
Holland is much more advanced in developing advert sites than other countries in the world.
Our own site goes even further because we translate adverts in 6 other languages
How about a site that pays YOU simply for listing your classifieds? That’s what http://www.Listasaurus.com does…and we are one of the first classifieds sites worldwide to feature VIDEO CLASSIFIEDS…how’s that for something new and exciting?
And what better way to showcase your product, service or business than by using full sight, sound and motion?
Some of you mention that you want something nicer looking that is more fun…then you should also love our mascot, Listie, as well as our Mystery Contest!
Would love to hear feedback and suggestions…oh, and we’re adding auctions soon, which will make us the first video auctions site out there!
Start getting paid to list today on http://www.Listasaurus.com!
Sorry Melanie http://www.MercadoSite.com has this for four years already.
In fact, EBAY classifieds are the global leaders.
http://onlyebay.blogspot.com/2.....asses.html
Oy, they allow people to sell dogs and cats on that site. They should stop.
It is because they are spending a crazy amount on advertising! They also come up for everything in google because of their crazy Page Rank. Why do the big companies have trouble at all? If I had what they had to start a new project I’d kill the competition too! It’s like they just looked at what is wrong with craigslist, took a look at their ebay sites and made it the seo power house.
As a college student, I like http://barefootstudent.com, kind of like craigslist in that it is simple and easy to use but just for college students and job posters…
http://www.youcarz.com
Used it recently after hearing their radio ad,
Made a video of my car, uploaded it, sold it the day after!
I cant beleive its free lol, im not paying autotrader a dime
Kijiji is a complete waste of time.
It is used by eBay to calculate sales for eBay.
I would like to see stats for the ‘Big time sellers’
on Kijiji.com!
Give me a break!
Why would eBay allow sales on Kijiji to overshadow CL,
when they have more stock in CL?
As a matter of fact why would eBay allow Kijiji to have
sales at all?
Ebay is e-commerce’s downfall. They gobble up smaller competition and use take over tactic’s for the larger competition. Now this may be “good business” but do we really want e-commerce to become what ebay stands for? They’ll have us duck walking instead of surfing. Personally I refuse to deal or invest with a company who changes the contract rules on a daily basis, doesn’t interact with it’s customer base and whose marketing ethics are nonexistant. At least with Craig’s list I get the warm fuzzy that I won’t wake up one morning being charged a fee….and no other venue exists because it’s wiped out the competition.
Great post, I\’ll keep coming back to check on updates!
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http://exchangeorsell.com nah this site way better got more like live chat room and different stuff. also the site still in construction but still able to post. much easier to see and configure.
open for 1 weekend and already over 6000 hits! http://exchangeorsell.com
haven’t checked barefoot, and probably won’t cuz they’re miscat spamming cl.
kijjikijj is junk. few ads in a lot of cats, and filled with repeat spam in almost all larger (used) cats.
It tried but kijiji never managed to come close to what Craigslist has become.
Proxy Craigslist