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Canadian classified advertising website From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Kijiji.ca (/kiːˈdʒiːdʒiː/ kee-JEE-jee; Swahili pronunciation: [kiˈʄiʄi], village)[1] is a Canadian online classified advertising website. It operates sections for cities and urban regions, for posting local advertisements. Kijiji was launched in February 2005 as an eBay subsidiary[2] under Marktplaats BV[3] Marktplaats and Kijiji became part of the eBay Classifieds Group in 2007.[4] The Kijiji brand is used in more than 100 cities in Canada.[5] eBay operated classifieds websites under different brands in other countries.[6]
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Type of site | Classifieds |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Owner | Adevinta |
| Parent | Marktplaats BV |
| URL | kijiji |
| Commercial | Yes |
| Registration | Required to post ads |
| Launched | February 2005 |
| Current status | Active |
Kijiji along with its parent Marktplaats and eBay Classifieds Group were acquired by Adevinta in 2020.
Kijiji is the most popular online classifieds service in Canada and draws more traffic compared to competitor Craigslist in that country. The New York Times referred to Kijiji's Canadian site as representing "one of the few online brands that fizzled in the United States but found success elsewhere."[7] Kijiji was made available to selected cities in the United States on June 29, 2007,[8] however the brand was changed to eBay Classifieds in 2010.[9]
Kijiji offers similar services and is seen as a competitor to Craigslist, with the biggest differences being that Kijiji has an extensive pets section, as well as a more modern interface.[citation needed]
Kijiji was launched as "a start-up within eBay created by a small team of entrepreneurial employees", according to eBay's March 2005 press release announcing the new service.[10] Kijiji was launched in February 2005 in Quebec City and Montreal, and expanded across the rest of Canada in November 2005.[11][12]
In May 2005, eBay acquired the British-based online classifieds service Gumtree,[13] which operates in cities in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Poland, Hong Kong, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand; as well as the Spanish company LoQUo.[14] One month later it acquired OpusForum.org, a website offering online classifieds in Germany.[15] In July 2006, Klaus Gapp, the founder of OpusForum, noted that after its acquisition it had "merged with its new Kijiji classifieds business in the German speaking markets of Austria, Germany and Switzerland."[16]
As a consequence of the Adevinta deal, their German eBay Kleinanzeigen branch (ebay-kleinanzeigen.de) shortened its name to just Kleinanzeigen ("small ads") (kleinanzeigen.de) on 16 May 2023.
Kijiji's owner (eBay) was also a minority shareholder in Craigslist. In April 2008, eBay launched a lawsuit against Craigslist claiming that their executives were attempting to weaken eBay's investment, while in May of the same year, Craigslist filed a counter suit claiming Kijiji had stolen trade secrets and that eBay used misleading tactics to promote the service.[39][40] To end the lawsuit, eBay agreed to sell back its 28.4% ownership stake in Craigslist in 2015.[41][42]
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