As we reported last week, we’ve learned that eBay Motors is going full speed ahead with local. Now we have more info. Within four-to-six months, sources tell us that the auction leader will be launching a full-fledged, re-branded local auto site. The site will including a full range of auto-related listings, services (oil changes, detailing, etc.), coupons, a new look-and-feel, improved search functionality (product vs. listings) and significantly more content.
It gets better. eBay’s local vision apparently goes beyond autos and directly impacts newspapers and Yellow Pages. Autos may, in fact, be just the tip of the iceberg for eBay and local. The company, which is looking to regain its growth profile, is said to be cooking up a major local initiative that will “encompass the entire category structure.”
If so, it will probably seek to leverage various classifieds holdings. The company owns 25 percent of Craig’s List and has several international classified efforts, including Kijiji, Gumtree.com, LoQUo.com, Intoko, Netherlands-based Marktplaats.nl, and German automotive classifieds site mobile.de. Our guess is that Craig’s List isn’t part of the mix –eBay has been strictly hands off. But expect to see aspects of the other services pop up here.
Our sources additionally tell us that a Wall Street Journal Online feature by Jennifer Saranow and Mylene Mangalindan on EBay’s local ambitions from November 2005 is still “pretty close to the mark.” The article notes that EBay is expanding beyond its traditional middleman role and will be ”aiming to take over the phone book’s customary role as the first place people turn to find local services from housecleaners to accountants.”
We asked eBay about all this. A corporate spokesperson only noted that “we cannot comment on speculation about what might happen in the future.”
In addition to eBay’s push into local classifieds through craigslist, kijiji and others , it has also opened up it’s databases and API’s to developers leading to a number of phone and web apps. Here are a couple I maintain. One focused on motors, and the other on eBay itself
http://FindYourAuto.net
http://AllBazaar.com
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[...] On the AOL site, there were, to be expected, 17 comments on Berr’s story this morning– most of them slamming eBay as having lost touch with sellers and buyers, charging too much, and being out-performed by other auction sites. The ranters are always a little out of proportion, but it does seem like eBay’s momentum is hurting. A recent eBay initiative to expand its model to cable TV ad sales was dropped just last week by the Cable Advertising Bureau. But in case you forgot, it is still one powerful company. I’m anxiously awaiting the company’s long-planned U.S. classifieds initiatives, which are likely to launch, albeit behind schedule, sometime later this year. [...]
[...] There has, of course, been insider talk that eBay was working on using Kajijji as a classifieds supersite that would be an outgrowth of eBay Motors. Such a site would include services (i.e. oil changing), and be integrated with rich content, etc. [...]