More competition for Kijiji, LesPAC
Locanto Canada, a free-classifieds site that’s been operating in English for almost five years, has added a French version of the site in 38 Canadian cities.
It’s a highly competitive market, including LesPAC, a French site operated by YPG / Trader; Kijiji, owned by Ebay and an absolute powerhouse in Canada; UsedCanada and its subsidiary sites, from Black Press, and a host of sites offered by newspapers and other companies. And, of course, there’s Craigslist, which is strong in the Vancouver market.
The Locanto French-language site, at http://www.fr.locanto.ca/ , focuses on the Francophone areas of Canada. About 6 million of the 35 million residents of Canada are French speakers.
Locanto is owned by Yalwa, a German start-up. It offers sites in 40 countries for free classifieds, business directories and questions-and-answers.
“The Francophone community of Canada represents more than 6 million people and has its own identity,” Klaus Gapp, CEO and Founder of Yalwa, said in a news release. “With the French Locanto Canada site, we aim to meet the local conditions and culture of the Francophone communities in Canada and be as authentic as possible.”
We’d call this a YACLW — “yet another Craigslist wannabe” — but if it’s been around since November 2006, at least it’s got some staying power.
EBay acquires LatAm sites AlaMaula
EBay has completed another major acquisition, a group of Latin American sites operating under the AlaMaula brand.
The site and its related sites enter a crowded field. OLX.com, owned by Naspers, is strong in Latin America, as are a number of regional sites. And EBay still has its Slando.com site operating in Brazil alongside Alamaula. (You can bet they’ll be merged fairly quickly.)
Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. AlaMaula — which roughly translates into the surprise expression “Oh, wow” — joins the other EBay Classifieds Group brands, including Kijiji, Gumtree, EBayClassifieds (United States), Mobile.de and Rent.com. In its news release (posted here), the company said the start-up site launched in February 2010 and is “already showing impressive organic growth with over 5 million visits per month.”
“AlaMaula is a promising start-up with a fantastic local team whom we are excited to welcome into the EBay Global Classifieds portfolio,” said Pat Kolek, VP of finance and operations for EBay Classifieds Group. “There is significant untapped potential for online commerce in Latin America and we’re confident by applying the collective experience within our portfolio we can build our next success story.”
Kolek is based in Amsterdam; Diego Noriega, GM of AlaMaula, will report to him and will be based in Latin America. EBay gave no indication whether it would move AlaMaula from its current headquarters location in Cordoba, Argentina, nor whether it would keep the entire staff or would be making staffing changes.
The site will focus on key Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking markets, EBay said.
AlaMaula was founded in late 2009 and started as one site, but now includes country, city and vertical sites in 10 countries. EBay said the acquisition would give its classifieds group a presence in 25 countries and more than 1,000 cities. EBay launched its initial classifieds sites in 2004.
The acquisition was announced in Argentina on June 23, but was not announced in the United States or placed on EBay’s corporate website. http://www.ebayinc.com/ . Because it was not announced in the United States, the publicly traded EBay (Nasdaq: EBAY) effectively indicated that it does not consider the acquisition material to its financial results in the immediate future.
EBay shutting down Kijiji in France
EBay has announced that from Aug. 16 Kijiji.fr will be shut down and its classifieds hosted on the parent site instead.
“This is a step in the rationalisation of the brand” explains Nathalie Touzain, Director of Communications for EBay France. “It’s a local strategic decision that only concerns France. In Canada, for example, Kijiji will continue to exist while in Germany it was shut down a year ago.”
EBay rebrands Kijiji in U.S. as EBay Classifieds
Kijiji Canada charging ahead, Wheels uses print advantage
The competitive balance in Canada’s online auto vertical continues to shift. Kijiji Autos — which has by far the most private-party listings but is far behind AutoTrader.ca in dealer inventory — has begun charging dealers for listings. Rates per vehicle for a 31-day listing range from C$9.99 in Quebec & B.C. (where Trader’s LesPAC and BuySell are dominant) to $11.99 across the country and $14.99 in the Greater Toronto Area. (“Dealers” are defined as anyone with more than two vehicles for sale.) Kijiji Canada has been offering dealer packages since late 2009, working with inventory partners Strathcom, Boost Motors, Evolio and EDealer, but apparently now will block any attempts at “free” commercial postings. An impressive ComScore chart shows Kijiji’s market-leading traffic; the challenge is convincing dealers that its traffic turns into meaningful leads. Meanwhile, the Metroland / Torstar-owned Wheels.ca is flooding its Ontario markets with four-page, full-color print editions displaying inventory from each local market. Nearly 2 million copies are delivered, either with the local newspaper or by alternative methods where no Metroland paper is published. The combination of online and mass-delivered print is, while an expensive investment, a weapon that’s virtually impossible for competitors to match.
Canadians love Google, games and Kijiji
Search engine usage constitutes 15 percent of all Canadian internet visits — and Google gets 80 percent of them. (Canadians use search engines 52 percent more than Americans and 20 percent more than Britons — so they’re either more inquisitive or more confused.) And what are Canadians searching for? “Games” (or “jeux” in French) was the number one non-branded term searched over 12 weeks up to June 27, 2009, according to a report from Hitwise, the Experian company recently expanding in Canada. (The report’s available by request.) Besides social networks, Facebook and YouTube in particular, Canadians are searching for shopping opportunities, particularly Kijiji, EBay and LesPAC. More evidence of the crucial importance of SEO and SEM…if you don’t know what those are, for goodness sake give us a call.
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