Local Classified – eBay launches Kijiji

There have been some interesting new products launched in the local ads space.  Up to now the main players have been Craigs list (25% owned by eBay) and Gumtree (owned by eBay – not in the US).  However eBay has now launched Kijiji in the US which looks like a Gumtree 2.0.

Kijiji has some great new features such as the map which is on the homepage, allowing you to easily search by area to see you local ads.  I hope that they bring this functionality over to the UK soon.

I wonder how long it will be before these site start adding a checkout and calling themselves an marketplace?  It would be easy for eBay to do as they already have the infrastructure needed (i.e. PayPal) and the traffic.

There is also another entrant in the US market called Cozybug.  This is a site for sites which are too big to sell on eBay.  It differs from Kijiji/craig’s list in that there is a small fee to list and they offer storefronts.

I think that they will hve an uphill battle on their hands though as they are charging for their ads and at the moment their have exactly zero listings on their site.