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Kijiji, Craigslist, E-Bay and You
Torontoist contributor Shari K. pointed us to Kijiji, a bulletin board service launched earlier this year that lets you post messages, jobs, for sale ads, apartment listings and more. This piqued our curiousity. Kijiji (whose name is a typographic nightmare!) seems like a Craigslist clone albeit with a touch of cuteness. The name means village in Swahili, they post photos of the site moderators (like this one) and it seems like a fun, little non-profit trying to do something helpful.
But upon closer inspection we realized that Kijiji is a spinoff of eBay. Is it eBay’s way of trying to muscle out Craigslist? What makes this even more confusing is that CL is partially owned by eBay and when Kijiji was launched last year some in the industry saw it as eBay trying to make sure it didn’t get outmuscled in foreign arenas by a burgeoning Craigslist.
We don’t have quite a handle on all this and we’re not about to go painting one side as good or bad. Torontoist will just stick to the site with more ads for missed connections. For that Craigslist wins hands down.