eBay

carly@ebay.com · ‎03-08-2005

eBay Launches International Classifieds Websites

We would like to announce our launch of online classifieds Web sites in select international markets. Launched under the brand Kijiji, which means “village” in Swahili, the Web sites offer people in the same city a convenient way to meet, have fun, share ideas, and trade various goods and services.

Kijiji is now available in more than 50 cities in Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, and Japan. In Canada, Kijiji is available in French only in Montreal and Quebec City. From building friendships and trading large appliances to talking about the city’s best restaurants or looking for a babysitter, Kijiji is designed to help people connect.

We encourage you to visit the Kijiji site, post a classified, and tell us what your experience has been. Is it easy to use? Do you like the site? Would you use Kijiji?

Kijiji

eBay Pink, Kitty will be reading this thread and answering your questions.

Regards,
Carly

numaihotipelaulise72 · ‎03-12-2005

hy,
this web site www.intoko.ca i know it.it has spanish french netherlands and deutsche version.
But there are not people that will buy this.
this is not so good.
i will tri kijiji hope to be good

studiolrecorders · ‎03-12-2005

Well I guess someone must have asked our suck up to the French Liberal government what would be the best language to promote in Canada. They do account for a lot of votes as we are rep by pop you know. I guess they do have all the money in Quebec now since they bled the country with the sponsorship program.
I think that making it in French is rediculous, and I am 1/4 French Canadian. I am speaking English hear right? Your questions are in English right? What's with that? To those who salute! the French version as to be fair to you all, it is your own provincial rulings that keep you from the rest of the world. Canada is one. These things wouldn't be an issue if it wasn't for selfishness. I agree that both languages would be proper. I'm not against French speaking people, only those people who are against the English.

tons_o_junk · ‎03-14-2005

What a terrible investment by Ebay. When that money could have been spent helping struggling Canadian families instead they build kijijiijij or hoewever you spell it.

forestfaeries · ‎03-15-2005

Sounds like we could use one here in Ottawa. Unfortunately, I can't tell you what I think of the new sites, because I can't understand a word on them.

Would have been nice to see one in english too!

Bye

kashka · ‎03-15-2005

That's where your fee increase went.

eserafini2 · ‎03-16-2005

OK, I just used the Montreal site.

I answered someone's ad and I placed one.

The verification number is extremely hard to read even with my glasses. Could you fix that?

Elaine

kitty@ebay.com · ‎03-17-2005

Elaine - Thanks for your comment re the verification number being hard to read. I am interested in your comment. Where exactly do you find the verification number hard to read? Thanks.

Kitty

eserafini2 · ‎03-17-2005

When you want to answer an ad or post your ad.

eserafini2 · ‎03-17-2005

It's in green Kitty and almost impossible to read.
It gets easier if you make a mistake and are told you did (like wrong email address) them you get an orange verification number with real numbers that can be read 🙂

reuseitbc · ‎03-17-2005

So I went to the english site....

I just have a hard time beleiving that ebay would do anything for free..Why create direct competition??

bupd · ‎03-20-2005

well,
why not go bilingual?

BTW, many people want to come to Quebec to LEARN French -
and look for apt. rentals in English...
Too nichy for u?

And it does make sense to go to the Netherlands for rentals in Montreal, Quebec, don't it?

I hope you use lots of Google Ads, or some other major viral engine to get the word out! Kiji, Fiji, Intoko - it's all Greek to me. How many people looking for apts in Montreal, Quebec, would find you?

You don't believe me! Lets see how many people post on this board by same time next week - that's your reach - you know what I mean 😉

my 2C ....

bupd · ‎03-20-2005

One more little aside:
Free Online Classified Ads - hmmm - a very original idea here! For sure.
Oh, and I love the way the Montreal section on http://www.intoko.ca mushroomed from the first ad in Feb. 22 05 to 3 by March 19 05!
You definitely hit the motherload here!
Let's see... Free Online Classifieds took off big time in '98, right? By mid '99 all net savy people realized they were email gathering farms...
Who was the genius that convinced u guys to invest in this thing?
Kitty, if u want to make an impact email me and I'll make u (& eBay) a lot of money ultra-fast in the Montreal market.
No kiddin'!

mister_jesus · ‎03-21-2005

First of all, some people are bilingual. Second, offering services in french is very common in Quebec, as french is the most popular language. The government does not impose french on the people. The people impose french on the advertisers. Very slick web site. -Tom

Tout d'abord, quelques personnes sont bilingues. En second lieu, l'offre des services en français est très commune au Québec, comme le Français est la langue la plus populaire. Le gouvernement n'impose pas le français au peuple. Le peuple impose le français aux annonceurs. Site Web très lisse. - Tom

mister_jesus · ‎03-22-2005

It would be nice if you could display the number of listings beside each category, especially since this website is pretty new and most of the categories are nearly empty. It is frustrating to click on a category, only to find it empty. -Tom

sonicfrogg · ‎03-22-2005

Ya the whole starting in french thing blows me away. At first I thought it was an awesome idea, but I mean come on to start in Quebec? Toronto would of been a much better choice. In reality way less than half of our Canadian population speaks french, where as practicaly everyone speaks english. Blows my mind really!!:|

wall-to-wall-sportswear · ‎03-23-2005

I too feel left out because I only speack English
Was this decieded in Toronto or California?
About the comment "Back in 1776 when the US was forming it's country, they were voting on their official language. English won "
Most people even Americans will be surprised to know that English is not the official language in the US.
There is however a bill in congress at this time to make it so.

exelentdeelz · ‎03-23-2005

Canada is a French socialist country now...don't you all know this? English rights are always superceded now in favour of anything French.

I don't understand how they can come in here to an English chat board (especially since they have one just for them) and claim in 2005 how rough they have in Canada. There is NOTHING that they don't have that you have and much that they do have that you no longer do (look at the subject of this thread for example...I don't care what eBay tells you, even international interests are now fully aware that to deal with Canada is to appeal to the French).

The majority of the positions in the government of Canada are now deemed bilingual because the government has created a false demand for the French language in virtually every position that exists. There are simply not enough people who speak French to support these disciminatory position requirements, so now they have to spend Billions and Billions of taxpaper's money to force EVERYONE to learn to speak French in order to justify these trumped up requirements.

Every single political issue facing this country is controlled by the opinions of the people and politicians of Quebec. The politicians of Quebec have shown their contempt for Canada and all Canadians by continually enforcing legislations that further their own self-interests. Case in point, the Bill 101 Quebec GOVERNMENT legislation which was condemned by the United Nations as being contrary to a citizen's rights to express themselves in their language of choice. Quebec's reply? TOO BAD! And if you're not French and you live in Quebec? GET OUT!

Canada spends an average of $233 BILLION DOLLARS on bilingualism EVERY SINGLE YEAR! Never again should you wonder why our health care system is in such shambles.

mister_jesus · ‎03-24-2005

Dear exelentdeelz:
I must say that I disagree with your argument(if you could rightfully call it an argument.) Your post reads like a tract from a seedy televangelist.

What are you trying to say here?
"There is NOTHING that they don't have that you have and much that they do have that you no longer do"
Please translate.

Logical fallacy:
"Every single political issue facing this country is controlled by the opinions of the people and politicians of Quebec."
Every issue? Even missile defense? Iraq? softwood lumber?

Not even true:
"Case in point, the Bill 101 Quebec GOVERNMENT legislation which was condemned by the United Nations as being contrary to a citizen's rights to express themselves in their language of choice. Quebec's reply? TOO BAD! And if you're not French and you live in Quebec? GET OUT"

"Canada spends an average of $233 BILLION DOLLARS on bilingualism EVERY SINGLE YEAR! Never again should you wonder why our health care system is in such shambles."
-Our GDP is only $958.7 billion (2003 est.), so even assuming half of that(an VERY liberal guess) went to tax, then half our tax dollars are going to bilingualism?

Do you think we are stupid, or do you think that using an angry tone and lots of block caps will make people accept it unquestioningly? There are also more problems with your grammar than I care to comment on. You might want to consider learning English before you bash French.

mister_jesus · ‎03-24-2005

In response to LadyFingers: "Most people even Americans will be surprised to know that English is not the official language in the US. There is however a bill in congress at this time to make it so."

There is actually NO official language of the United States, per se. The individual states decide on which languages will be used by their citizens. Hawaii, for example, is officially bilingual. The legislation you are referencing would make English the sole official language for all states. This legislation is intended to unite the different minority groups, while in reality it will only make government services inaccesible to thousands of aboriginal Hawaiins, not to mention millions of Spanish-speaking immigrants.

exelentdeelz · ‎03-25-2005

Hey Jesus:

"There is NOTHING that they don't have that you have and much that they do have that you no longer do
Please translate."

All Federal funding now goes into Quebec. All the money every single Canadian scrapes by to earn is forked over to the so-called "have-not" province of Quebec. Where the Hell have you been? Have you not heard of Adscam? It is only the tip of the iceberg.

Logical fallacy (What kind of an expression is that Mr. Grammar King?):
"Every single political issue facing this country is controlled by the opinions of the people and politicians of Quebec."
Every issue? Even missile defense? Iraq? softwood lumber?\

God yes, of course missile defense...it is Quebec that doesn't want it. Iraq, well guess what? Quebec never agrees to anything the United States proposes. Quebec didn't agree with the US about Iraq, so Canada didn't go in. Softwood lumber, well I simply can't comment on that one, but I'll look into it.

Not even true:
"Case in point, the Bill 101 Quebec GOVERNMENT legislation which was condemned by the United Nations as being contrary to a citizen's rights to express themselves in their language of choice. Quebec's reply? TOO BAD! And if you're not French and you live in Quebec? GET OUT"

You are a fool to tell me this and you obviously know nothing about Canadian history. This is absolutely true. The United Nations did comdemn Quebec for tromping on the rights of free expression when they created their sign law that disallowed English on external building signs of businesses. Quebec didn't care and evoked the "Not withstnding clause" to enforce the legislation. The only reason why you don't believe it is because you CAN'T believe it (and because you are uninformed).

"Canada spends an average of $233 BILLION DOLLARS on bilingualism EVERY SINGLE YEAR! Never again should you wonder why our health care system is in such shambles."
-Our GDP is only $958.7 billion (2003 est.), so even assuming half of that(an VERY liberal guess) went to tax, then half our tax dollars are going to bilingualism?"

You Got it! That's exactly right. Where else do you think the funding comes from for attempting to impose bilingualism on the city of Nanaimo, BC? (Yes, all the way out there, that's how far their tentacles now reach)

"Do you think we are stupid?" No, just you.