Internet auction site eBay has launched a new website dedicated to free classified adverts in the US after Gumtree's meteoric success in the UK.Designed to rival America's homegrown sites like Craigslist, Kijiji - which means village in Swahili - covers listings from 220 cities in 50 states.
Launched in June in America, Kijiji has already enjoyed considerable success outside the US in Australia, New Zealand, Poland, Singapore, South Africa, Hong Kong and the UK. And eBay spokesperson Hani Durzy told internetnews.com that the experience gained from launching the site in these countries had led to the idea that eBay was now ready to contend with the United States.
"We learned a lot abroad and we're ready to apply these learnings to the US market," he added.
Launched globally with eBay in 2005, the auction site insisted that it would not heavily advertise on the site, instead utilising keyword searches to boost search engine optimisation and drive traffic onto the site through engines such as Google and Lycos.
However, some controversy has arisen with the news that eBay already owns 25 per cent of the San Francisco-based Craigslist, which would be a direct competitor to Kijiji. Craigslist currently receives more than seven billion page views per month, according to figures from the BBC.
Mr Durzy said that Kijiji would concentrate on attracting business from small and midsize communities which he claimed were "underserved" by Craigslist. He also suggested that the layout and design of Kijiji's website would be easier to use than some of its competitors.
