eBay vs. Craigslist Courtroom Fisticuffs Start Today 129
davekleiman writes with news that former eBay chief exec Meg Whitman took the stand today to kick off the battle that has been brewing between Craigslist and eBay. The waters are further clouded by Whitman's upcoming bid for governor of California. "eBay wants to shed light on the 'coercive plan' that it has said Newmark hatched with Craigslist Chief Executive Jim Buckmaster to dilute eBay's ownership stake, ultimately stripping eBay of its seat on the Craigslist board. Craigslist has hit back that eBay used its board seat to glean information to launch its own classified site, Kijiji. Craigslist also claims that eBay used deceptive tactics to direct traffic away from its site."
Re:Kijiji? (Score:3, Informative)
I was about to post a dupe of your post. Checked out Kijiji.com and there doesn't seem to be anything there???
Epic failure indeed.
Re:Cross Ownership (Score:5, Informative)
It does happen in some industries, and the law on it is pretty complex and murky (and varies by country). When it's below a certain threshold, so the minority stake doesn't exercise control over the company, and has representation basically only to ensure its rights as a minority shareholder are respected, it's considered a "passive investment" and not subject to the usual antitrust scrutiny that would ensue if, say, eBay actually tried to buy Craigslist (or buy a stake considered controlling). A lot of economists are a bit skeptical of just how passive such passive investments are, though. The keywords +"passive investment" +competitors [google.com] bring up a whole pile of writing on the subject...
In Smaller Markets, Kijiji Dominates (Score:5, Informative)
Craigslist is big in large markets, but in small markets, no one uses it. Kijiji rules the roost in small markets.
IE in my homedown, of about 100,000 people, there are less than 200 posts right now in craigslist ForSale section.
Kijiji has over 24,000.
It is because of the classic dillema that keeps users on Craigslist (despite it being a steamping pile of crap), and keeps people on eBay (despite them charging a fortune). People searching need a critical mass of people selling, and people selling need a critical mass of people searching. It is a self-renforcing monopoloy that is a tough nut to crack.
Craigslist has always been unpopular in small markets, that is where Kijiji got its foothold.
Re:Cross Ownership (Score:5, Informative)
ebay is now just evil (Score:5, Informative)
Dirty Pool (Score:3, Informative)
This sounds like dirty pool all the way around.
1). Decided to Create competing site
2). Buy shares from a shareholder to gain a seat on the board
3). (possibly) use information gleaned from meetings of the board towards own good
4). (possibly) use seat on board to negatively influence decisions
As others have mentioned there is certainly a conflict of interest here and while Ebay has every right to own shares, sitting on the board is just unethical and its surprising that the other shareholders would stand for it....
Re:ebay is now just evil (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Kijiji? (Score:4, Informative)
I live in Phoenix.
Doing a quick and unscientific test, the Phoenix Kijiji site has 37 for-sale listings posted for Saturday, Sunday, and Today.
The Phoenix Craigslist site has 1200 for-sale listings in the last 45 MINUTES.
At least for my location, I think Kijiji qualifies as an "Epic failure".
Re:In Smaller Markets, Kijiji Dominates (Score:3, Informative)
I can't actually find a specific small-town environment in which Kijiji actually has an advantage. Can anyone suggest a specific one?
http://edmonton.en.craigslist.ca/ [craigslist.ca]
http://edmonton.kijiji.ca/ [kijiji.ca]
In every comparable category I've checked, Kijiji has more activity (usually by an order of magnitude.) For example "Computers" - Kijiji has 17 ads in the last hour, Craigslist has 3 for the whole day. (And that's not counting "Computer accessories" which only exists in Kijiji.) "Motorcycles" - Kijiji has 31 posts so far today, Craigslist has 3. "Furniture" - Kijiji has 27 posts in the last hour, Craigslist has 4 for the day.
Every other category I've checked is similar.. Kijiji is just *way* more popular in Edmonton.
Re:In Smaller Markets, Kijiji Dominates (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Governor? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:ebay is now just evil (Score:1, Informative)
You are right. 28% share was sold by Mr. Knowlton. But why? He was disgruntled with the direction of where the other two founder's direction. Here read an article from Mercury News.
http://www.mercurynews.com/top-stories/ci_13944966
btw, The original 28% was diluted by CL to 25% in 2007. now, ebay has one a quarter of control.
Re:Kijiji? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:In Smaller Markets, Kijiji Dominates (Score:2, Informative)
Re:ebay is now just evil (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Kijiji? (Score:3, Informative)
This is really irritating, as Kijiji is stuffed with adertising, tries to upsell you for higher placement, etc. etc.
not sure why it happened in the first place, but it's the state of things.
Re:In Smaller Markets, Kijiji Dominates (Score:3, Informative)
So if we have more Craigslist than Kijiji we get to call ourselves a big city? Woot!
As of now the December 7th tallies in all of 'for sale' are roughly -
Craigslist - 2100
Kijiji - 4 (yes, four)
Population - Roughly 450,000 for the entire multi-county area