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Kijiji, a Flop in the U.S., Rules Online Classifieds in Canada

nytimes.com

11–20 of 28 posts

Re: Kijiji, a Flop in the U.S., Rules Online Classifieds in Canada

#11
post #7

I think classifieds sites tend to have this phenomenon of being localised to regions simply because, by nature, its usefulness derives from finding people and services in your physical area. And much like social networks, the more people use it, the more useful it is. In Australia, and I think Britain, most people use Gumtree. And in New Zealand they use a similar site called TradeMe

Gumtree is also part of eBay Classifieds Group.

Re: Kijiji, a Flop in the U.S., Rules Online Classifieds in Canada

#14
I believe the main reason for Kijijis success in Canada is in its early years Kijiji canada ran massive PPC arbitrage campaigns - buying clicks for pennies from Google and reselling to unsophisticated Canadian media buyers for a significant markup. This enabled Kijiji Canada to continually invest massively into audience acquisition in Canada for many years, and as marketplace value is driven by scale, enabled them to build up the leadership position they have today.

Re: Kijiji, a Flop in the U.S., Rules Online Classifieds in Canada

#15
post #14

I believe the main reason for Kijijis success in Canada is in its early years Kijiji canada ran massive PPC arbitrage campaigns - buying clicks for pennies from Google and reselling to unsophisticated Canadian media buyers for a significant markup. This enabled Kijiji Canada to continually invest massively into audience acquisition in Canada for many years, and as marketplace value is driven by scale, enabled them to…

That doesn't square up with the article or anything I've heard about Kijiji's success in Canada. Can you point to anything supporting the assertions?

Re: Kijiji, a Flop in the U.S., Rules Online Classifieds in Canada

#16
post #9
post #6

I love Kijiji. It's extremely popular in Ontario. Everyone I know uses it for buying and selling anything, myself included. It's free, simple to use, and there is a huge amount of traffic on the site so you can sell things quickly. People use to use AutoTrader but no one I know uses it anymore. They seem to have lost their market share to Kijiji long ago.

It was one of the first things I missed when I moved to NYC. Kijiji is so much better than craigslist.

No it isn't. There's no API and the IOS app is iPhone native, runs in emulation on the iPad. No mapping capability and scarce development and support of third-party solutions due to the limited market.

Kijiji is loaded with intrusive ads and spammed by retail stores with no way to filter. The interface is awful, with tiny thumbnails and no compensation for vision problems.

Classic Beta/VHS story. Kijiji has market share in Canada as its only advantage. My fellow Canadians are ignorant idiots for using an inferior product.

Re: Kijiji, a Flop in the U.S., Rules Online Classifieds in Canada

#17
post #15
post #14

I believe the main reason for Kijijis success in Canada is in its early years Kijiji canada ran massive PPC arbitrage campaigns - buying clicks for pennies from Google and reselling to unsophisticated Canadian media buyers for a significant markup. This enabled Kijiji Canada to continually invest massively into audience acquisition in Canada for many years, and as marketplace value is driven by scale, enabled them to…

That doesn't square up with the article or anything I've heard about Kijiji's success in Canada. Can you point to anything supporting the assertions?

Mostly conversations with Kijiji Canada employees between 2008-2010. I vaguely remember them mentioning the recruitment of a "super affiliate" from Montreal to manage their PPC program as being a key event in their success in Canada.

Re: Kijiji, a Flop in the U.S., Rules Online Classifieds in Canada

#19

Interesting. I live in BC and Kijiji definitely isn't as dominant as Craigslist here. It's common to find jobs, second hand goods, and cars on Craigslist. I haven't heard anyone refer to Kijiji for anything here. Quite different from ON where Kijiji does seem to have the dominance that the article referred to.

Victoria, BC is mostly usedvictoria dominated, but a minority use craigslist and it actually seems to have fewer flakes on it. Kijiji is a ghost town here.
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