Het wil eBay maar niet lukken met de rubrieksadvertenties in Amerika. In Nederland leidt Marktplaats de markt, in Duitsland is Mobile.de een grote en in Engeland is een site als Gumtree een begrip. Laatste cijfer: de rubriek Classifieds groeide 20 procent.
Maar in de VS? Daar wil het met Kijiji niet echt lukken. Echt niet, eigenlijk. Craigslist is daar de leader of the pack. En dat zint eBay Inc. niet.
Vandaag maakt eBay daarom bekend dat het het merk Kijiji in Amerika aan de kant schuift. Alle Kijiji-activiteiten in de VS worden ondergebracht onder het vertrouwde eBay-merk -> eBayClassifieds.com, heet de nieuwe webstek.
De Wall Street Journal belde met eBay-baas Norrington en schreef:
“(…) In addition to the new name, eBayClassifieds.com has a new design and stronger filters to limit fraud and adult content. In many ways, the company is setting itself up as a “family friendly” version of Craigslist, which has come under scrutiny from some law enforcement officials for facilitating prostitution.
“It is a safe place, it is family friendly and we have complimented that with the safest way to pay, via PayPal,” said Lorrie Norrington, president of eBay Marketplaces. The demand for a safer, classifieds site free of adult content “is a clear opportunity for eBay,” she said. (…)
EBay also unveiled two new apps for the iPhone that it says will make it easier for customers to list things for sale on eBay and on eBayClassifieds.
The apps streamline a selling process that can otherwise be tedious, by allowing users to search for similar listings, and use them to fill out their own listing. It even tells you how much similar items have sold for on the site, so you can quickly gauge how much you’re likely to get. You can use the phone’s camera to photograph your item for sale, too. In general, the company says you can sell online in 60 seconds or less. (…)
In 2009, the company said it generated $600 million in merchandise volume through mobile platforms – and it expects that it will generate $1.5 billion this year. (…)”
