It appears eBay has launched a network of international classifieds sites at Kijiji.com as part of an initiative from eBay New Ventures. A check of Whois records reveals eBay is the current registrant of the Kijiji domain name, which was first registered on February 15, 2000.

According to the main Kijiji.com Website, "Kijiji" means "village" in Swahili:

"Hopefully Kijiji helps bring back a bit more of the "village" feeling in our own communities. The internet has done wonders to help bring ideas and people together from all over the world - but what about helping to create a deeper sense of community right in your own neighborhood?"

There are no English-speaking Kijiji sites other than the main index page at Kijiji.com. The sites operate in Germany, Japan, China, Canada (French-speaking Quebec province), France and Italy. An article in Planet Internet in the Netherlands reported on the site launch on March 3. It stated that an eBay Netherlands spokesperson confirmed that Kijiji is from eBay, and quoted him saying Kijiji is an initiative of eBay New Ventures (http://www.planet.nl/planet/show/id=118880/contentid=555802/sc=a52847).

Nothing in eBay's 2004 annual report refers to Kijiji, but it reports that Eskander E. Kazim has acted as Senior Vice President of New Ventures since December 2004. Prior to that, Kazim served as PayPal's Vice President of Marketing and Business Operations. Kazim joined eBay in October of 1998 and previously served as the VP for Platform Solutions where he managed the eBay Developer Program and the product line for standalone applications.

Last year, eBay acquired a 25% stake in Craigslist, an online community featuring classifieds and forums in 45 cities around the world; Mobile.de, a car classifieds site in Germany; and Rent.com, classifieds site in the apartment and rental housing industry in the U.S.

eBay also acquired Marktplaats.nl, reportedly the most popular classifieds Web site in the Netherlands, in November 2004. Marktplaats owns classifieds sites in Germany, Canada, Spain and Turkey. At the time of the acquisition, eBay said it "allows us to expand our e-commerce position in the Netherlands while adding to our growing knowledge of classifieds-style trading."

http://www.kijiji.com