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Kijiji

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Kijiji Canada
The current Kijiji logo, featuring a rainbow of colors in the dots above the I's and J's.
Screenshot
Type of site
Classifieds
HeadquartersToronto, Ontario, Canada
OwnerAdevinta
ParentMarktplaats BV
URLkijiji.ca
CommercialYes
RegistrationRequired to post ads
LaunchedFebruary 2005; 19 years ago (2005-02)
Current statusActive

Kijiji.ca (/kiːˈdʒiːdʒiː/ kee-JEE-jee; Swahili pronunciation: [kiˈʄiʄi], village)[1] is a Canadian online classified advertising website. It operates sections for cities and urban regions, for posting local advertisements. Kijiji was launched in February 2005 as an eBay subsidiary[2] under Marktplaats BV[3] Marktplaats and Kijiji became part of the eBay Classifieds Group in 2007.[4] The Kijiji brand is used in more than 100 cities in Canada.[5] eBay operated classifieds websites under different brands in other countries.[6]

Kijiji along with its parent Marktplaats and eBay Classifieds Group were acquired by Adevinta [de] in 2020.

Kijiji is the most popular online classifieds service in Canada and draws more traffic compared to competitor 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."[7] Kijiji was made available to selected cities in the United States on June 29, 2007,[8] however the brand was changed to eBay Classifieds in 2010.[9]

Kijiji offers similar services and is seen as a competitor to Craigslist, with the biggest differences being that Kijiji has an extensive pets section, as well as a more modern interface.[citation needed]

History

[edit]
eBay, PayPal, Kijiji, and StubHub in Toronto

Kijiji was 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.[10] Kijiji was launched in February 2005 in Quebec City and Montreal, and expanded across the rest of Canada in November 2005.[11][12]

In May 2005, eBay acquired the British-based online classifieds service Gumtree,[13] 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.[14] One month later it acquired OpusForum.org, a website offering online classifieds in Germany.[15] 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."[16]

  • In June 2008, Kijiji China changed its name to Baixing[17] and raised Series A from eBay and GSR Ventures,[18] opening the website to local investment. In August 2008, Kijiji re-branded its India site to Quikr.[19]
  • In 2009, the Kijiji Germany website changed its name to eBay Kleinanzeigen [de].[20]
  • In February 2010, Kijiji withdrew its Personals section in the United States and Canada.[21] In March 2010, eBay unveiled a new classifieds site, called eBay Classifieds, to replace Kijiji in the United States.[22]
  • In November 2012, Kijiji entered into a listing partnership with Rentseeker.ca in Canada.[23][24]
  • In April and May 2015, Kijiji Hong Kong and Kijiji Taiwan closed, with the homepages providing a list of links to other eBay-owned classifieds sites in other countries.[25][26]
  • In June 2016, Kijiji introduced Admarkt, branded as Kijiji For Business.[citation needed] 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.[27]
  • In January 2017, Kijiji introduced eBay ads that appear in search results, which are identified by an eBay logo.[28]
  • In July 2017, Kijiji made it mandatory to register with the site to post ads. Previously, registration had been optional.[29]
  • In December 2017, Kijiji introduced “My Messages”, a messaging system which allows users to communicate with each other directly on the site.[30]
  • By 2018, Kijiji was facing competition from social media sites such as Facebook Marketplace, and other classified ad sites such as VarageSale and LetGo.[31]
  • In October 2018, Kijiji unveiled an updated logo, replacing the one that had been in use since the site started in 2005.[32]
  • In November 2018, Kijiji launched Kijiji Autos,[33] a new car shopping platform separate from the main site.[34]
  • In July 2019, Kijiji announced the closure of the Tickets category, citing a shift from paper to digital tickets and the resulting problems with making sure the codes are authentic and functioning as the reason. Users were encouraged to buy and sell tickets on Kijiji's partner StubHub, which is also owned by eBay. Kijiji disabled the option to post or repost ads in the Tickets category on 29 July. By 29 September 2019, all Ticket ads expired and the category was closed.[35]
  • In November 2019, Kijiji introduced the ability to leave user reviews.[36]
  • In June 2020, the Norwegian Adevinta [de] announced their intent to buy eBay Classifieds Group.[37] The deal was completed on 25 June 2021.[38]
  • On 31 May 2022, Kijiji.it shut down. It now directs users to try Subito.it.

As a consequence of the Adevinta deal, their German eBay Kleinanzeigen branch (ebay-kleinanzeigen.de) shortened its name to just Kleinanzeigen [de] ("small ads") (kleinanzeigen.de) on 16 May 2023.

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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.[39][40] To end the lawsuit, eBay agreed to sell back its 28.4% ownership stake in Craigslist in 2015.[41][42]

References

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  1. ^ "eBay Classifieds Group page about Kijiji brand". eBayClassifiedsGroup.com. Archived from the original on June 5, 2009. Retrieved January 15, 2018.
  2. ^ "Business Week". Archived from the original on July 8, 2007.
  3. ^ "Marktplaats als Kijiji naar buitenland". Adformatie (in Dutch). September 3, 2005.
  4. ^ "eBay Classifieds Group Refreshes its Corporate Site". www.ebayinc.com. October 7, 2014.
  5. ^ "Kijiji - eBay Classifieds Group.html". ebayclassifiedsgroup.com. Archived from the original on November 25, 2019. Retrieved November 16, 2019.
  6. ^ "About Us | eBay Classifieds Group". www.ebayclassifiedsgroup.com. Archived from the original on May 14, 2021. Retrieved March 28, 2021.
  7. ^ 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.
  8. ^ Nelson, Matthew G. (July 6, 2007). "EBay Brings its Free Classifieds Village to the U.S." clickz.com. Archived from the original on July 8, 2007.
  9. ^ "EBay rebrands U.S. Kijiji site". The Globe and Mail. March 30, 2010. Retrieved July 9, 2023.
  10. ^ "eBay launches classifieds Web sites" (PDF). M2 Presswire. March 8, 2005. Archived from the original (PDF) on January 5, 2016. Retrieved December 27, 2015.
  11. ^ "Did Canada save Kijiji, or will Kijiji save Canada?". o.canada.com. Archived from the original on November 17, 2019. Retrieved November 16, 2019.
  12. ^ "Kijiji - eBay Classifieds Group". ebayclassifiedsgroup.com. Archived from the original on November 25, 2019. Retrieved November 16, 2019.
  13. ^ Brook, Stephen (May 19, 2005). "eBay buys London ads website Gumtree". The Guardian.
  14. ^ "eBay's Kijiji Acquires Gumtree & LoQUo Classifieds Sites". AuctionBytes. May 18, 2005.
  15. ^ "eBay's Kijiji acquires German Classified website OpusForum". Internet Retailer. July 5, 2005. Archived from the original on April 23, 2008.
  16. ^ Gapp, Klaus (July 1, 2006). "Locanto – going global with something very local". Archived from the original on August 3, 2010. Retrieved August 10, 2010.
  17. ^ "Kijiji中國分站客齊集 易名百姓網重新出發". 數位時代. June 27, 2008. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved April 20, 2023. 2005年三月一日，全球電子商務龍頭 eBay 公司在世界八十個城市推出名為 Kijiji 的生活情報分類廣告網站
  18. ^ "大事记 - 百姓网官方介绍 - 百姓网". Baixing. Retrieved April 20, 2023.
  19. ^ "Classifieds website Kijiji India is now Quikr.com". Quikr India. June 24, 2008. Retrieved August 11, 2010.
  20. ^ "eBay Kleinanzeigen - eBay Classifieds Group". ebayclassifiedsgroup.com. Archived from the original on December 2, 2019. Retrieved November 16, 2019.
  21. ^ "Basics – Kijiji Helpdesk". help.Kijiji.net. Archived from the original on December 11, 2013. Retrieved January 15, 2018.
  22. ^ "EBay Introduces a New Classifieds Site and More Mobile Apps". NY Times. March 30, 2010.
  23. ^ "Congrats to RentSeeker.ca on Closing a Deal with Kijiji » Green Ink Consulting". Green Ink Consulting. December 5, 2012. Archived from the original on July 9, 2019. Retrieved July 10, 2019.
  24. ^ "December 2012 Canadian Economic Fundamentals". myREINspace - Canada's Leading Real Estate Forum. December 3, 2012.
  25. ^ "Kijiji香港：本地免費分類廣告網。喺Kijiji，乜都Trade得到。". kijiji.com.hk. Archived from the original on November 20, 2019. Retrieved November 16, 2019.
  26. ^ "奇集集Kijiji分類廣告 _ 台灣 - 租屋, 售屋, 拍賣, 中古車, 求職, 服務 - 免費刊登，輕鬆找". kijiji.com.tw. Retrieved November 16, 2019.
  27. ^ "Ad Posting Limit – Kijiji Helpdesk". help.Kijiji.ca. Retrieved January 15, 2018.
  28. ^ "eBay Listings – Kijiji Helpdesk". help.Kijiji.ca. Retrieved January 15, 2018.
  29. ^ "Register to Post Ads – Kijiji Helpdesk". help.Kijiji.ca. Retrieved January 15, 2018.
  30. ^ "My Messages – Kijiji Helpdesk". help.Kijiji.ca. Retrieved January 15, 2018.
  31. ^ Kopun, Francine (September 10, 2017). "Social media sites take on Kijiji, Craigslist as second-hand sales soar". Toronto Star. Retrieved January 15, 2018.
  32. ^ "A Fresh New Look – Kijiji Helpdesk". help.Kijiji.ca. Retrieved October 3, 2018.
  33. ^ "Kijiji Autos - New and Used Cars, Trucks and SUVs Near You". www.kijijiautos.ca.
  34. ^ "Kijiji Terms of Use - Kijiji Helpdesk". help.Kijiji.ca. Retrieved December 22, 2018.
  35. ^ "Closing the Tickets Category - Kijiji Helpdesk". help.Kijiji.ca. Retrieved November 16, 2019.
  36. ^ "User Reviews - Kijiji Helpdesk". help.Kijiji.ca. Retrieved November 16, 2019.
  37. ^ Barbaglia, Nerijus Adomaitis, Pamela (July 21, 2020). "Adevinta buys eBay's classifieds unit in $9.2 billion deal". Reuters.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  38. ^ "Adevinta completes acquisition of eBay Classifieds Group, creating the world's leading online classifieds group". Retrieved July 6, 2021.
  39. ^ "Craigslist strikes back at eBay". BBC News. May 13, 2008.
  40. ^ Stone, Brad (April 30, 2008). "EBay-Craigslist Fight Is About Kijiji and Control, Complaint Shows". NY Times.
  41. ^ "eBay sells a coveted prize back to Craigslist, ending long legal tussle". Fortune.com. June 19, 2015. Retrieved January 15, 2018.
  42. ^ 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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