In March 2005, AuctionBytes broke the news that eBay had launched an international classifieds site called Kijiji (link). At the time, it struck us as strange that eBay owned a quarter of Craigslist yet had launched its own classifieds service, and even stranger when eBay launched Kijiji in the U.S. in 2007.

We were not the only one who were surprised - Craigslist founder Craig Newmark and Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster testified in court last week that they were surprised and disappointed when eBay decided to launch a competing site, despite having a seat on the Board of Directors of Craigslist.

The corporate governance trial, eBay v Cragislist, kicked off in Georgetown, Delaware, on December 7th, and I attended the first week of the trial to see eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, Craigslist founder Craig Newmark, Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster and Skype President Josh Silverman testify about the events leading up to the lawsuit. Legal issues aside, the trial was most fascinating for the details revealed during the testimony. I tweeted, blogged and reported on the events as they unfolded (see the AuctionBytes Blog post here).

Craigslist is a very popular selling venue in part because it is mostly free, it's simple to use, and has no ads. During the trial, there was much talk about eBay's desire to "monetize" Craigslist. The battle between shareholders is unlikely to impact users unless or until the day eBay gets a controlling share of the classifieds site.

In addition to the continued popularity of online classifieds sites, 2009 saw some interesting ecommerce trends. Most retail sites implemented some form of "daily deal" on their websites, and grand-daddy Woot.com launched Deals.woot.com, a community-based aggregator of daily deals. Also popular were invitation-only sites such as Rue La La and Gilt.com. eBay rolled out its hybrid attempt at fashion exclusivity with designer agreements and a feature called the Fashion Vault.

Amazon acquired Zappos and launched more of its own branded goods; Google rolled out Product Listing Ads.

Swoopo launched in the U.S. and, despite being called "the most efficient, addictive way to separate people from their money," spawned a large number of copycats to its pay-to-bid auction model. Mobile shopping and social networking continued to be hot topics, and product and merchant reviews, while less glamorous, grew even more important to success online selling than ever. A busy year indeed!

We'd like to take a moment to thank the services that have sponsored AuctionBytes over the past year. They make it possible for us to bring you coverage of events such as the eBay/Craigslist trial and important retail conferences. We'd also like to thank our readers for being as engaged in ecommerce as we are. It's a pleasure to share information with readers that give so much back.

Who knows what the New Year will bring for small sellers, but we'll continue to be there to cover it through our newsletters and blogs.

Thanks for reading, enjoy the holiday season, and have a happy and healthy New Year.