ebay continues growth into classified advertising and job listings space
May 20th, 2005
EBay continues to quietly expand its presence in the online classifieds market. Already owning 25 percent of newspaper-killer Craigslist and launching Kijiji overseas, eBay has just acquired two players in the European market.
EBay Inc. has acquired two European classified ads sites, a
continuation of the online auction company’s international expansion.
The online auction company said its international classifieds group
Kijiji had bought London-based Gumtree.com and Loquo.com, based in
Barcelona, Spain.
Both acquisitions provide job listings.
So what’s the big picture here? Only eBay’s inner circle knows for sure, but don’t discount these moves and the potential impact on online recruitment. Craisglist is easily outpacing the growth of Monster, CareerBuilder and HotJobs here in the states. At the same time, eBay and its online classifieds offerings are growing steadily overseas. Plus, I expect more acquisitions.
While all this is going on, eBay’s core business of online auctions has taken a bit of a hit recently. Once the darling of Wall Street, eBay has been relegated to Google and Yahoo!’s shadow, seeing its stock drop and stagnate the past few quarters.
No doubt shareholders are clamoring for new revenue streams. A major play into online job postings and classifieds might just be a quick cure for what ails.
Popularity: unranked [?]
