eBay Announces Kijiji: Please let us know your feedback here

[carly@ebay.com]

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

[2000dougs]

sorry i don't speak french.so i can use it .
winnipeg

[heatherberkley]

I have so many negative thoughts about this that I cannot even begin. I don't even want to scoup to their level and let this bother me. All I can say is "could it be any crazier???"

[joybell3]

Well, I am bilingual. However, I resent the fact that the rest of Canada ignors the English community here in Quebec. Those of us here who do speak English and want to protect our right to communicate in English in Quebec have to fight for that "privilege". So no, I have no intention of using that site.

[joybell3]

You should ask Jeff Skoll about how he would feel about that "French only" site if he still lived in Montreal.

[dhwarner]

Just what we need!!! French is a minority language in Canada even though politicians have sucked up to Quebec and a lot of national taxpayer dollars have been spent to appease Quebecers - there is no balance there - it's way out of whack - too many political leaders have come from Quebec and it has thrown the concept of Canada out of the realm of reality. I am not anti-french. But it does annoy me when I call from Ontario to a national business and am greeted in French first. ok, it's an official language, and I appreciate the french culture that is historically part of Canada and believe it has enriched us as a nation. but to elevate a language, any one, other than English or French, like Swahili or any other in a nationwide forum is disruptive. Emigrants to a foreign country should expect to adapt to that chosen country and adopt the language(s) and culture of that country or not emigrate. Not to say that they should not have contacts and support based on their birth culture, but must strive to adapt to their new life - if it's in a french area of Canada, like Montreal, they should seek to express themselves in french probably in favour of english and leave their native language in the background of their cultural enclave.

[dnc_ont]

	Announcing the launch of Kijiji across Canada. Kijiji (meaning "village" in Swahili) is an all-new FREE online classifieds site that helps you connect with your local community. Within minutes you can post free classifieds ads in categories such as pets, real-estate, jobs, cars, personals and more. Kijiji is now available in 19 cities across Canada, from Toronto to Charlottetown. Visit your Kijiji today and post your classified ads for free.

[dnc_ont]

Looked good in preview :^O

[yestertime37]

Ok ....not sure where these French only kijiji sites are. ( I'm sure I can guess) but out here in British Columbia we get them in real English.

Must be easy to manouver too, as my DH whose is a complete techno klutz managed to place an ad for a car with no help from anyone. Not only did he get the ad placed but he had a phone call on it in less than an hour.

Didn't sell the car but still....not bad for a free ad.
Especially when placing a car ad in the local Thompson controlled rag costs close to fifty bucks.

[jeanb1504]

I'm in BC too, and had no problem at all. Just chose Victoria from the list, and "voila" (sorry, but just had to :^O).

Not a huge number of listings yet, but a good spread offered. Pets, furniture, car parts for sale and wanted, etc. The listings went as far up island as Courtenay. A fellow from Port Alberni would even drive and deliver his stuff.

Didn't see anything I want, but will look again as long as this is free. If charges get charged, I'll just stick with the local "Buy and Sell". It's free.

Jean

[girliepops123]

😄
ok I have no idea what the big fuss is about the french at the begging of the site.< i am an English canuck> I was looking around eBay and found the links to kijiji a few days before the big announcement. I think it had a french and English choice. I saw English adds `
I easily used the links to find my area. Found ann add i liked and saved 1300.00 dollars off an item I wanted. I like the lay out. I have been trying to find a site that has things in my area and just found it... thanks

[kiefmaster]

i have used kijiji once ..... and its counterpart craigslist .... for the same listing .... a brand new camera .... from both services i got letters purportedly from england and dublin ...both wanting me to email personal info .....one even identifying my bank ........ and wanting to wire me ... or send me check or ??? definitely a buyer beware situation

[pelinmtl]

i don't see why they can't have it translated by a script. french only for montreal? unacceptable.

[mooseyfate4]

I have NO CLUE what everyone is complaining about with the French thing..... when I go to the site, only the title is in french, as soon as you click on a city (for me, Toronto) everything is in English!

As for the site itself, it's not great. But at least it's free (for now). The only good thing is you can list live animals, which you can't on ebay.

The listings are too big, there are not enough on the page (only 10 per page??) and the wanted ads get in the way. There should be several sub-catagories for each section.

I have given up on the site already after I put up an ad and within a few days it was on like the 10th page, no one is going to look through that many.

The only way to have your ad seen at all, is to re-post every day or two, and I don't have the time or engergy for that!

Oh, and the email sent to users announcing the page looked like spoof/spam email.

[jeanb1504]

Well, I made the first post on this thread, and can only say again what I said then. I'm in Victoria, and when I click on Victoria I get ENGLISH! And, the rest of my comments remain the same except that there are now more listings.

So I don't understand why all of the rest of you are having trouble with French.

Carly, what's going on here, anyways??? Two of us from BC posted "no problems", but it seems like everyone else has nothing but trouble. Could this be a simple programming problem?

Jean

[jeanb1504]

Follow up:

Okay, I just checked out other cities and they show in English also.

Montreal and Quebec show headers in eng/fr as do all others, and the ads are mostly in French which I would expect. But, there are a few in English ads also in various categories.

So, I repeat, what's going on here?

Jean

[saltspray1143]

I posted a player piano on Kijiji,so far I got 3 reply's.Each one of them are frauds,Would not use PayPal,Wanted to send cheques for Piano,and I pay the shipping cost with my cheque out of the overpayment they sent me to their shipper. There is to much fraud on Kijiji. I will only list on EBay from now on. Sorry Walter

[keedda]

I have posted a couple of items on the Calgary site and was approached within a couple of days from a puchaser from Nigeria with the usual money order scam. I have also noticed a number of fake postings offering items such as 2004 motorcycles for leass than half their actual value. This was a problem with a number of similar ebay listings as well. I will use Kijiji but with caution.

[shibadiva]

Bonjour tout le monde! I may have missed it in scrolling through the posts about French. I wandered over here to see what Kijiji is all about after reading the discussion thread about eBay's notion of offering live animals.

http://forums.ebay.com/db1/thread.jspa?threadID=1000164235

I guess/hope that idea was nixed, but then all you need to do is go over to Kijiji or eBay China.

[newtown369]

I'm french Canadian and that site does'nt impress me a little bit! It's mixed up, has Escorts posting Business card type announcements, gay and straight messages, men seeking women and woman seeking men messages in wrong place, etc... Not imperessed!

[lglvl]

Feedback on Kijiji: I have listed and sold several items on it and also purchased some items on it, so I have found it to be useful, especially in the GTA where there are more users. Two things I would love to change, first, the name! When I tell people about it no one has any idea what it means, how to spell it etc. It should be something easy to spell and say because word of mouth is good advertising and it needs to be easy to put in your web browser. The second thing I would change is to have more subcategories so I can narrow down a search, like on ebay. A number for how many items in the category would be a bonus. Thanks for your time.