Kijiji Corporate Strategy Special: Move into Facebook

A Toronto Star article today looks at Kijiji's strategy for expanding its business. Two words: Social Media, stupid!

“One example would be to get our users’ listings on Facebook,” said Zac Candelario, general manager of Kijiji Canada.

Another possibility is to treat certain categories in a different way, said Jacob Aqraou, general manager of eBay Classifieds Group. Kijiji is an eBay company.

Ads for pets, nannies or vacation rentals, for example, would do well on Facebook where the audience is trusted family and friends, Aqraou said.

“The number of users on Facebook in Canada is very high. Canadians like to trade and find services online but aren’t that keen on buying online. That’s why we think the online classifieds model works in Canada,” Aqraou said.

Sales through mobile phones are another area of future growth, the company says.

For example, in Denmark, users of an eBay-owned classified ads website can snap a photo of the license plate on the car they want to sell, and the details of make and model will automatically upload from a motor vehicle registration site.

Neat ideas, for sure. But given that Kijiji's major revenue comes from people viewing ad pages on its site and serving up related advertising, I don't quite follow how serving up the site's content on someone else's web site would make money sense.