Kijiji (Swahili for village) is a website similar to Craigslist for posting local classified advertisements. It is a subsidiary of eBay and was launched in February 2005. Kijiji websites are currently available for more than 70 cities in Germany, France, Italy, Canada, India, China, Taiwan and Japan. Curiously, the company does not offer its services in the United States, presumably due to the strength of Craigslist (in which eBay owns a 25% share).
In November 2004 it acquired Marktplaats.nl, which offers a similar classifieds service in the Netherlands, holding a 80% market share. At that time Marktplaats.nl had branched out into Spain, Germany, Turkey and Canada under the brandname Intoko. Intoko Spain merged with Loquo, Intoko Germany merged with Kijiji Germany. Intoko Canada was shut down. Intoko Turkey is still operating under Intoko.com.tr.
In May 2005 it acquired Gumtree, which offers a similar service for cities in Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, as well as the Spanish company Loquo. One month later it acquired opusforum.org, another website offering online classifieds in Germany.
It does business under the names Gumtree, Loquo and marktplaats in several other European countries and some countries in the Commonwealth.
Kijiji is the official owner of eBay.eu, as opposed to eBay itself. * Commerce websites