Kijiji

Kijiji Canada
Screenshot
Type of site
 Classifieds
Owner eBay
Website kijiji.ca
Alexa rank Increase 13 (October 2018)[1]
Launched March 2005 (2005-03)
eBay, PayPal, Kijiji, and StubHub in Toronto

Kijiji (/kiːˈdʒiːdʒiː/ kee-JEE-jee; Swahili pronunciation: [kiˈʄiʄi], village)[2] is an online classified advertising service that operates as a centralized network of online communities, organized by city and urban region, for posting local advertisements. It is a fully owned subsidiary of eBay launched in March 2005.[3] Kijiji websites are available for more than 300 cities in Canada (Alexa website rank of 13 for Canada), Italy (Alexa website rank of 82), Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Kijiji was made available to selected cities in the United States on June 29, 2007, but was changed to eBay Classifieds in 2010.

Kijiji offers similar services and is seen as a competitor to Craigslist, with the biggest differences being that Kijiji gets much less U.S. traffic[4] and has an extensive pets section.

Kijiji is the most popular online classified service in Canada.[5] It is one of the top ten websites in Canada, and draws three times the amount of traffic drawn to Craigslist in that country. The New York Times referred to Kijiji's Canadian site as representing "one of the few online brands that fizzled in the United States but found success elsewhere."[6]

History

Kijiji was originally launched as "a start-up within eBay created by a small team of entrepreneurial employees", according to eBay's March 2005 press release announcing the new service.[7]

In May 2005 eBay acquired the British-based online classifieds service Gumtree,[8] which operates in cities in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Poland, Hong Kong, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand; as well as the Spanish company LoQUo.[9] One month later it acquired OpusForum.org, a website offering online classifieds in Germany.[10] In July 2006, Klaus Gapp, the founder of OpusForum, noted that after its acquisition it had "merged with its new Kijiji classifieds business in the German speaking markets of Austria, Germany and Switzerland."[11]

In August 2008, Kijiji re-branded its India site to Quikr.[12]

In 2009, the Kijiji Germany website changed its name to eBay Kleinanzeigen.

In February 2010, Kijiji withdrew its personal section in the United States and Canada.[13] In March 2010, eBay unveiled a new classifieds site, called eBay Classifieds, to replace Kijiji, in the United States.[14]

In November 2012, Kijiji entered into a listing partnership with Rentseeker.ca in Canada.[15]

In June 2016, Kijiji introduced Admarkt, branded as Kijiji for business.[16] During this time, Kijiji put restrictions on the number of free ads users can have in certain categories. This was intended to push heavy users of the site to sign up for Admarkt.[17]

In January 2017, Kijiji introduced eBay ads that appear in search results, which are identified by an eBay logo.[18]

In July 2017, Kijiji made it mandatory to register with the site to post ads. Previously, registration had been optional.[19]

In December 2017, Kijiji introduced “My Messages”, a messaging system which allows users to communicate with each other directly on the site.[20]

In October 2018, Kijiji unveiled an updated logo, replacing the one that had been in use since the site started in 2005.[21]

In recent years, Kijiji has faced competition from social media sites such as Facebook Marketplace, and other classified ad sites such as VarageSale and LetGo.[22]

Kijiji's owner (eBay) was also a minority shareholder in Craigslist. In April 2008, eBay launched a lawsuit against Craigslist claiming that their executives were attempting to weaken eBay's investment, while in May of the same year, Craigslist filed a counter suit claiming Kijiji had stolen trade secrets and that eBay used misleading tactics to promote the service.[23][24] To end the lawsuit, eBay agreed to sell back its 28.4% ownership stake in Craigslist in 2015.[25][26]

References

  1. ↑ "Kijiji.ca Site Info". Alexa Internet. Retrieved October 3, 2018.
  2. ↑ "eBay Classifieds Group page about Kijiji brand". eBayClassifiedsGroup.com. Retrieved January 15, 2018.
  3. ↑ "Business Week". Retrieved December 27, 2007.
  4. ↑ Ebayclassifieds.com Site Info. Alexa.com. Retrieved on August 12, 2013.
  5. ↑ Kijiji statistics Archived January 1, 2012, at the Wayback Machine.. eBay Classifieds Group. Accessed November 29, 2011.
  6. ↑ Asuten, Ian (May 17, 2015). "Kijiji, a Flop in the U.S., Rules Online Classifieds in Canada". The New York Times. Retrieved February 29, 2016.
  7. ↑ "eBay launches classifieds Web sites" (PDF). M2 Presswire. March 8, 2005.
  8. ↑ Brook, Stephen (May 19, 2005). "eBay buys London ads website Gumtree". The Guardian.
  9. ↑ "eBay's Kijiji Acquires Gumtree & LoQUo Classifieds Sites". AuctionBytes. May 18, 2005.
  10. ↑ "eBay's Kijiji acquires German Classified website OpusForum". Internet Retailer. July 5, 2005. Archived from the original on April 23, 2008.
  11. ↑ Gapp, Klaus (July 1, 2006). "Locanto – going global with something very local". Retrieved August 10, 2010.
  12. ↑ "Classifieds website Kijiji India is now Quikr.com". Quikr India. June 24, 2008. Retrieved August 11, 2010.
  13. ↑ "Basics – Kijiji Helpdesk". help.Kijiji.net. Retrieved January 15, 2018.
  14. ↑ "EBay Introduces a New Classifieds Site and More Mobile Apps". NY Times. March 30, 2010.
  15. ↑ "Canadian Startup RentSeeker Lands Deal with Kijiji to Automatically Syndicate Property Ads". TechVibes. Retrieved June 25, 2013.
  16. ↑ "Kijijis new Admarkt will ruin kijiji for businesses • r/kijiji". reddit. Retrieved January 15, 2018.
  17. ↑ "Ad Posting Limit – Kijiji Helpdesk". help.Kijiji.ca. Retrieved January 15, 2018.
  18. ↑ "eBay Listings – Kijiji Helpdesk". help.Kijiji.ca. Retrieved January 15, 2018.
  19. ↑ "Register to Post Ads – Kijiji Helpdesk". help.Kijiji.ca. Retrieved January 15, 2018.
  20. ↑ "My Messages – Kijiji Helpdesk". help.Kijiji.ca. Retrieved January 15, 2018.
  21. ↑ "A Fresh New Look – Kijiji Helpdesk". help.Kijiji.ca. Retrieved October 3, 2018.
  22. ↑ Kopun, Francine (September 10, 2017). "Social media sites take on Kijiji, Craigslist as second-hand sales soar". Retrieved January 15, 2018 – via Toronto Star.
  23. ↑ "Craigslist strikes back at eBay". BBC News. May 13, 2008.
  24. ↑ Stone, Brad (April 30, 2008). "EBay-Craigslist Fight Is About Kijiji and Control, Complaint Shows". NY Times.
  25. ↑ "eBay sells a coveted prize back to Craigslist, ending long legal tussle". Fortune.com. June 19, 2015. Retrieved January 15, 2018.
  26. ↑ Swanner, Nate (June 19, 2015). "eBay sells equity back to Craigslist, ending uncomfortable alliance and litigation". TheNextWeb.com. Retrieved January 15, 2018.
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