eBay Launches kijiji – A FREE Classified Site – Another Craigslist?

This could be HUGE.

eBay has just opened up kijiji.com in the US, a free on-line based classified service.

I jumped right in to the Phoenix edition to see what was involved in creating a "listing".

It was a snap. Very intuitive interface, easy to upload pictures (a max of 4, at 4mb each). It's not the greatest listing, as it was an experiment in ease of use (plus, 10 years from now I can say, "I had the first home listing on kijiji in Phoenix")

To me, the site is quite similar to BackPage.com, though a bit "cleaner". It's certainly a LOT cleaner than Craigslist, which purely from a design perspective is a disaster from 1985.

SFGate.com has a great article, including comments from Craigslist who said, "We simply do not look at other sites as competition. We never have done so at any time." Hmmm…

Kijiji is free–for now. Apparently eBay plans to explore ways to make more money, I'm assuming by offering "premium services", at some point.

eBay's 25% stake in Craigslist (which they plan to keep according to SFGate) makes this even more interesting. I can't really see Craig Newmark helping out eBay, and regardless of how Craigslist feels about kijiji, it does seem to be direct competition. Craig and his list tend to march to the beat of a different drummer, so their nonchalant attitude is to be expected. No question that Craigslist dominates the free on-line classifieds market. But eBay isn't chump change in the on-line world.

There is a dearth of listings on kijiji–for now. Only 21 items TOTAL on the Phoenix site. It will be interesting to watch the growth.

Surprisingly, I haven't heard anything from the real estate blogs out there. Normally we're slobbering over free venues to display listings. Maybe too many hot dogs on the grill right now…

This could get interesting.

Others Opine: Deep Jive Interests, Joe Duck, Don Dodge, Wired, Technically Speaking,

[tags]kijiji, kijiji.com, craigslist, real estate marketing[/tags]

Email This Post

Print This Post

Thanks for reading! We value your thoughts and opinions, so please feel free to leave a comment. Please contact us if you have any questions or need help. You can also get automatic updates for this blog free via:

Potentially Related Posts on Phoenix Real Estate Guy:

Obama to Visit Phoenix, Chatting up Foreclosure Fix

Spammers are….stupid

Phoenix Real Estate Guy: New Look, Same Great Taste

Read this blog's Comment Policy

John L. Wake - Realtor

I like that you can click on the photos to see huge versions of the photos. Very nice.

Jay, Do you put home ads in CraigsList etc. very often and has it worked out well for you?

Jay - The Phoenix Real Estate

That is indeed a nifty little feature. I do wish you could have more then 4 photos though. Perhaps at some point that will be part of a "premium" service...

Our web provider (Point2 Agent) makes it *very* easy to post listings to Craigslist. CL definitely generates a lot of traffic. We've got a few CL visitors on auto-listing updates and drip emails, but no clients. Yet.

John L. Wake - Realtor

Jay, how often do you put it up on Craig's List? My impression is that you have to put it up on Craig's List repeatedly to have an impact. Is that right?

Postlets, which I've started using for listings, has a nice cut-and-paste thinga-ma-jig for Craig's List.

I'm now interested in checking it out after reading your comment.

Jay - The Phoenix Real Estate

John - I try (but often fail) to post a different listing weekly to Craigslist. CL gets a HUGE amount of posts, and any ad will rapidly "fall off" the main page as newer ads are placed. But if you submit the same ad too often (or even similar ones) they tend to get "flagged" by users and moderators and they can be pulled completely.

Fortunately, Point2 makes it very easy to post to CL (quite similar to the Postlets thing-a-ma-jig) which takes the tedium out of it.

I know some agents who will post an ad, go in a few days later and remove it, and then repost the same ad. This is supposed to reduce flagging. In the Phoenix CL, and ad remains active for 45 days, however after about 3 days it is burried so deep it's likely never to be seen. I haven't personally tried the post-remove-replace routine. I just find it easier to post a different listing weeklyish. The nice thing is any listing posted to CL will drive traffic to the site, where all the other listings are readily available.

We actually seem to get more interest in our land postings as opposed to residential, but I've seen on forums where agents report good success with residential as well. There is no question that people will view a CL listing, and getting eyes on a listing is pretty darn important...

scott

kijiji its nice fromat classified

Ravi

Don't you think that CL should try to make the site a bit lively without compromising on the amazing categorization. Kijiji for example uses some vibrant colors (green and yellow) which I quite like.

lokesh ruhela

In present scenario, use of internet is increasing rapidly. No one is separate from internet. Every body is related to internet and getting some valuable information for one’s career, Study, education, research or home purpose. So our children are alsointeracting with internet and almost every child has access to internet. It does not only record keystrokes but also records all microphone sounds, voice chat as spy sound recorder. It captures screenshot as spy camera from all users at your computer. Program is used for various task such to know about users interaction with your system at your absence, monitoring employees of your company. Computer key keystroke logger is used for monitoring and tracking a large number of students in a well equipped computer laboratory of a university, college, educational institute or school. This keyboard key recording utility is used for parental control to track your children, spouse activity. Also used to identify the sophisticated theft on your computer in your absence, monitoring bank employee’s activity. It is very useful tool for small and big IT companies, Banks, Post offices, Security agencies, Detective agencies, Research organizations, System administrators of computer lab, multinational company, computer library manager, type writers, data entry service provider.

MRSPATRICIA LILIAN

I MRS PATRICIA LILIAN A RELIABLE LOAN LENDER ,OWN A RELIABLE ,FAST LOAN COMPANY ,I GIVE OUT LONG AND SHORT TERM LOAN AT A LOW AND HIGH INTEREST RATE OF 3% FOR THE PERIOD OF 6YRS.
I OFFER OUT LOAN AT DIFFERENT CATEGORIES SUCH AS

PERSONAL LOAN
COMPANY LOAN
BUSINESS LOAN
PIVATE INVESTOR AND PUBLIC INVESTOR LOAN

SO FOR MORE INFORMATION , YOU CAN REACH ME VIAM MY EMAIL ADRESS

ADDRESS REDACTED

Thanks

Jay's Note: Patricia - I removed your email address. Your comment violates the comment policy on this blog, specifically no advertising.

Adam

WOW! they even have a Polish site, a little bit different ut they do! - http://gumtree.pl/
Nice!

classified ads

Craigslist really needs to do something about all these post being flagged. They are definitely between a rock and a hard space. Do you continue with these flaggers,flagging everything, including legitimate ads? I personally think they need some way to rank people, so people using craigslist for legitamate purposes dont get flagged so quickly.. I guess if there was a clear cut answer to these "flag happy people" craigslist would already be working on it..