eBay hasn’t really scored with any of its local initiatives during CEO Meg Whitman’s ten year tenure (she is retiring). The local version of eBay Motors, for instance, never seems to get out of the gate.
But the stars seem better aligned for its Kijiji free classifieds effort, which is attracting almost 1.7 million users, according to U.S. data released today by Nielsen NetRatings. Launched here last June, the service has been available in several countries since early 2005. It is now in 13 countries.
Nielsen ranks Kijiji as the #2 classifieds service in the U.S., although it is well behind CraigsList and its 20 million users (which eBay has a passive 25 percent interest in). In actuality, Kijiji probably has similar numbers as #3 Oodle – if you combine Oodle’s count with its partner sites, such as Lycos Classfieds. Outside of the U.S., Nielsen says Kijiji leads CraigsList in the nine other countries it monitors.
According to a Dec. 31 article in The New York Times by Bob Tedeschi, Kijiji’s U.S. launch was accomplished with “half a person.” But it is now poised to get more resources.
In the article, GM Jacob Agraou says eBay is aiming Kijiji at young families, keeping porn and other unsavory categories far away. New York is its biggest market, with 18,000 ads per week posted. A major initiative for the site is the recent launch of Spanish language services in Miami and several Texas cities. Polish, French and Chinese language versions are apparently next.
Since I am stuck in the reality-based community, I have a few questions.
What does 1.7 million users mean, exactly? What is a “user”? A page view? An ad? Someone placing an ad?
My quick glance at the Asheville ads showed that WAY more than half were being placed by bots, not people. Postlets and Sublet.com leading the pack. Is Sublet.com one “user”? Is each bot-ad a “user?”
Kijiji’s “US Launch” MAY have been ‘accomplished with a half a person’, but last July, CNET reported: “Kijiji, first launched two years ago in Canada, France, Germany, Italy, China, Japan and Taiwan, was made available last year in Austria, Switzerland and India. Along with the United States, Belgium and Turkey are joining the Kijiji fold this year. ”
So may I assume that the ‘half-person’ was part of a rather larger team effort?
If “keeping porn and other unsavory categories far away” is part of the business, how much manpower does that take? (I guarantee that ad review is at LEAST a full time job (even if the ‘launch’) was a half-time position.)
My question: How much did Ebay pay PER USER? or PER AD?
A personal question: AD2AD, which manages classifieds for community newspapers, had about 350,000 paid ads placed last year. We’re on track for close to a million ads this year.
And we are smallfry. Also in support of community newspaper classifieds are Pennysaver’s classified websites, Kaesu’s classifieds site, backpages.com, collegeclassifieds.com, etc., etc., etc. — these are sites which have thousands of REAL classifieds placed for and paid by REAL customers, not bots, that also get published in actual communities in real paper and ink.
So what exactly makes Kijiji news? Other than the eBay connection and expensive PR?
Or ‘news’, like ‘facts’ a vestigal appendage of the reality-based community?
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