The "Craigslist killer" is killing itself
Kijiji, eBay's online classified service, has landed in the United States with a resounding thud. To see why, just visit the site and compare it to Craigslist. Kijiji shows would-be users a punishingly slow, Flash-animated map of the U.S.; Craigslist, by contrast, loads an imageless list of cities in less than a second. The result is plain to see in the number of listings each site has attracted; Kijiji's take of the U.S. classifieds market, so far, is microscopic. eBay spokesman Hani Durzy brags to News.com about how much the auction site has supposedly learned from Craigslist, in which it took a 25 percent stake three years ago. What do they say about leading a horse to water?