How Not To Blog ?

ebay, 25% owner of Craigslist, has launched kijiji, a Craigslist clone for parts of Asia and Europe. All of the satellite kijijis are non-english, so I guess that's what makes it different.

First off, the name is really the wrong name. And, they're a bit late to the game. Not only are they late, they brought the wrong equipment. Craigslist is a community site. It's not a corporate-looking website or one that's trying to hide that's it's owned by a billion-dollar daddy.

A quick look at the WHOIS for the domain tells us:

eBay Inc. (OWMARHRDID)
2145 Hamilton Avenue
San Jose, CA 95125
US

I guess ebay is assuming that if it builds a community site with no real purpose, then people will come. Pretty much the main reason for the popularity of Craigslist is through word-of-mouth and Craigslisters from S.F. moving to other cities and asking for a local site. I can't even think of a reason anyone would want to post on kijiji.

'kijiji' is going at it from the wrong direction. ebay is trying to do too much. It wants a community site (no doubt to eventually integrate auctions in it) but ebay doesn't know shit about person-to-person interaction. Customer service at ebay is horrible. Has anyone ever tried to find out how to send in a support ticket or get some help from a real person? Even my lame blog has easy access to user assistance. (Granted, it's to give you a slap in the face, bitch!)

And who the fuck thought to build a site for Quebec in French only, with no choice for English? Do they even do their market research? Maybe that was part of the Craig$li$t deal...

I'll give them 6 months to forget about 'kijiji'