Online classifieds: Craigslist expanding in European languages

I recall back around 2005 a string of moves by eBay : they took a 25% stake in Craigslist. A huge success in the US, Craigslist was virtually unknown in Europe besides expat circles. Maybe that international opportunity is why eBay went on a shopping spree, and bought dutch classifieds site Marktplaats.nl (for an astonishing $290M in cash), german classified OpusForum, London-based Gumtree, and Spain’s LoQuo. All this while starting its own classified site Kijiji.com in several languages and countries, which eventually led to eBay competing with Craiglist. (On a side note, I see that several years later, the acquisitions have all kept their original identities, living alongside the Kijiji sites in those countries. It looks like Yahoo is not alone in having a hard time to digest / rebrand its acquisitions).

This has given eBay / Kijiji a serious headstart in the online classifieds business in Europe, with most other competitors being enclosed in national borders (there are exceptions, like VivaStreet, OLX, or Adoos which opened in a number of countries).

In that context, the current announcement by Craigslist (by Craig Newmark himself, actually, also picked up by TechCrunch) to become available in French, German, Italian, and Portuguese is great news, but seems to come a bit late.
But then in the meantime Microsoft’s equivalent offering Expo.Live.com is still limited to the US (and in english only).

5 Responses to “Online classifieds: Craigslist expanding in European languages”

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1 John March 28, 2008 at 8:41 pm

ebay also own slando.com and mobile.de
2 David March 28, 2008 at 10:21 pm

There are other free classified sites that operate in several european countries. Eg, Adoos, Schibsted sites, OLX, etc
3 Roald Cyberath March 29, 2008 at 11:36 am

@John: you’re right, eBay kept those acquisitions without changing the name (unlike alando.com, iBazaar.be, etc.)

@David: yes, thanks for pointing that there are indeed others ; I’ve added Adoos and OLX to the list. (couldn’t find a “single point of entry” in the Schibsted online classifieds).
4 Zoltan April 7, 2008 at 9:08 pm

It is hard to compete with the big and old sites but I believe there is still room for more players in the market, even if you have to compete with players like eBay or the big national newspapers. We are building our own free classified network, will be ready soon. http://www.kugli.com
5 Josh April 23, 2008 at 8:30 pm

Another notable and upcoming site Infozeal.com (http://www.infozeal.com) with tons of cool features to buy or sell almost any thing.