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eBay launched the U.S. version of Kijiji on June 29, 2007, bringing its free, locally organized classifieds service into direct competition with Craigslist. The move was strategically notable for an unusual reason: eBay held an approximately 25% stake in Craigslist, even as it built a rival service. Kijiji was not a new U.S. feature of eBay’s auction site; it was a separate listings platform, and its American launch came more than two years after its international debut.
What eBay launched in the United States
Kijiji was eBay’s local online-classifieds service, distinct from the company’s auction marketplace. Its U.S. rollout began in late June 2007; a later legal filing identifies June 29 as the launch date, while technology and business publications covered it in early July. (Legal filing; Ars Technica.)
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The service let people post local classified ads for free and browse listings by location and category. Contemporary reports described categories including cars, pets, and household goods. Kijiji connected prospective buyers and sellers; eBay did not itself complete the sale or process its payment. That made the service materially different from an eBay auction, where the platform was built around listing and purchasing items through eBay’s marketplace. (InfoWorld.)
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Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Although Kijiji was described as available in all 50 states, that did not mean every town had its own useful local market. Users had to choose from a directory of supported cities, which contemporary coverage described as incomplete. For example, some New Jersey users had to choose Newark or Atlantic City even if neither was a convenient location. Geographic coverage on a map and practical local coverage were not the same thing.
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The U.S. launch followed an international rollout
eBay introduced Kijiji internationally in 2005. Forbes reported the launch on February 28, while eBay’s corporate history records Kijiji’s creation in March. The service launched across multiple countries; the name comes from the Swahili word for “village.” (Forbes; eBay corporate history.)
The U.S. was not part of that initial push. Forbes reported in 2005 that eBay saw less need to introduce Kijiji there because Craigslist was already well established. The 2007 American rollout was therefore a later strategic decision, not the U.S. launch of a service that had already arrived domestically in 2005.
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Why eBay wanted local classifieds
Classifieds addressed a different kind of commerce from eBay’s core auction business. A local listing could make more sense for bulky goods, vehicles, or other items that buyers and sellers preferred to inspect and exchange nearby. A listings service also gave eBay a way to participate in local commerce without requiring every transaction to run through its auction and payment systems.
The opportunity came with a difficult market-entry problem. Classifieds depend on local activity: a site needs enough listings and interested buyers in each area to be useful. Craigslist already had a strong U.S. presence and brand recognition. Kijiji’s limited supported-city directory made the challenge more concrete: even a nationwide launch could feel thin in places where the selected city did not represent users’ actual local market. Contemporary reports discussed advertising as a possible way to monetize a free service, but it should not be mistaken for a confirmed launch feature or established revenue model. (ClickZ.)
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The Craigslist contradiction
The headline business tension was that eBay was both an investor in Craigslist and a competitor. eBay acquired an approximately 25% stake in Craigslist in 2004. In 2007 it nonetheless launched Kijiji in the U.S. as a Craigslist-style local classifieds service. eBay did not own or control Craigslist; it held a substantial minority interest while pursuing a competing business. (Wired; CBS News.)
That overlap later became part of a legal dispute. Craigslist alleged that eBay had used confidential information obtained through its position as a shareholder and board participant to help compete through Kijiji, and that eBay had acted against Craigslist’s interests. Those are allegations, not facts to state as established merely because they appeared in litigation. The documented points relevant to the launch are the minority stake and the competing U.S. service; the existence of the dispute does not by itself prove the allegations. (Case filing.)
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A direct rival, not a proven replacement
Kijiji and Craigslist shared a basic proposition: free local listings, organized geographically, with buyers and sellers contacting one another directly. Contemporary commentary characterized Kijiji’s interface as more visually polished, but that description is not evidence that it was safer, more effective, or more successful. Nor does the launch establish that Kijiji displaced Craigslist. The competitive hurdle was not simply getting a website online; it was building enough activity in individual local markets to rival an incumbent.
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Some 2007 commentary speculated that eBay could connect Kijiji with PayPal or Skype. Those possibilities were discussed as potential advantages, not as confirmed features of the U.S. launch. The service’s defining arrangement remained a local ad and direct contact, rather than an eBay-managed checkout. (InfoWorld.)
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In 2008, Kijiji executives were still publicly discussing ambitions to challenge Craigslist in the U.S., an indication that competition remained a central part of the story. eBay’s corporate history later placed Kijiji within its classifieds portfolio. Those later developments do not change the distinction between the 2005 international launch and the 2007 U.S. entry. (TechCrunch, 2008; eBay corporate history.)
Why the 2007 launch mattered
Kijiji’s U.S. debut marked eBay’s direct attempt to extend its business beyond auctions into local classifieds. The product was simple—a free place to advertise locally—but the strategy was more complicated: it required building local marketplace activity against Craigslist while eBay remained a significant Craigslist shareholder. The launch was a test of whether eBay could establish that local network, not proof that it had already won it.
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