Will Kijiji Overtake Craigslist?

If the word Kijiji sounds - and looks - nonsensical to you, perhaps it's time to brush up on your Swahili.

According to the official website, "kijiji" translates to "village" in English. The word alludes to the site's purpose - connecting buyers and sellers (of furniture, electronics, pets, cars and more) in an online community.

Kijiji's growth is impressive, reports TechCrunch.com, a blog that follows trends in Internet companies, but it still only attracts one tenth of the web traffic Craigslist generates. TechCrunch suggests that a name change could improve Kijiji's standing.

Kijiji's parent company is web giant eBay. But unlike eBay (and just like Craigslist), using Kijiji is completely free for the buyer and the seller. And while both sites have virtually replaced the traditional classified ads of old, Kijiji has one notable feature that makes it superior to bare bones Craigslist: instead of having to read each ad and then click to view photos on a new page, item descriptions are already displayed with accompanying photos. This results in much less clicking and much faster viewing, and thus a more enjoyable browsing experience.

In the same vein, Kijiji differentiates itself from Craigslist with attention to graphic design. Site visitors are treated to visual flourishes and pleasant graphics that seem nearly whimsical in comparison to Craigslist's austere typeface and background. Kijiji's category layout is also far more attractive and compressed.

Craigslist's problems are not limited to the superficial.

In March, a Chicago county Sheriff's office filed a $100,000 lawsuit against San Francisco-based Craigslist. The Associated Press quoted Sheriff Tom Dart calling the site the biggest source of prostitution in the country.

Kijiji does not have a comparable "Erotic Services" category listing. A visit to Craigslist reveals a long, actively updated list of ads ostensibly for personal massages or vaguely worded encounters, most accompanied by provocative photos.

When asked his opinion about offensive content permeating the site he founded and is still actively involved in, Craig Newmark told the Los Angeles Times he "didn't like it" but that he strongly believed in Democracy as the best system, flawed though it may be. Craigslist depends on its user community to "flag" offensive/illegal posts, which means the ads in question get forwarded to the Craigslist staff for removal.

The current legal drama creats a perfect opening for eBay. Through a flurry of print, radio and TV ads, it could raise public awareness of Kijiji's existence and play up its design strengths while also positioning itself as the more moral choice. And while the global recession may be spurring a penny pinching mindset, such convenient timing is hard to buy.

EBay's stock slid almost 3% today on the NYSE, down to $13.89 per share and near the 52 week low of $9.91. It doesn't look like Kijiji will be using the only other Swahili phrase widely known in the U.S. any time soon - "hakuna matata".

Sources: http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9739537-7.html; http://www.kijiji.com/