kijiji

This was originally posted at ZDNet's Between the Lines.

eBay's first-quarter results were better than expected, and the company argued that it is operating with more discipline and smarter.

For the quarter ended March 31 (statement), the company reported net income of $357.1 million, or 28 cents a share, on revenue of $2.02 billion, down $171.6 million from a year ago due to poor performance in its marketplaces unit. On a non-GAAP basis, eBay reported first-quarter earnings of $499.9 million, or 39 cents a share.

Wall Street was expecting earnings of 33 cents a … Read more

A new social site for music discovery called WorldSings has launched and to celebrate that, it has also announced that it will award $1 million in prizes to users who participate in its World's Best Song Competition.

According to the company, WorldSings will combine artists and music fans to create an environment where they can interact with each other and share music. The site is open to any musician or band performing original music and fans can vote for their favorite songs. The bands who recorded the top 20 most popular songs will be sent to Las Vegas to … Read more

Buyers and sellers on eBay are due to get a bigger cushion for transactions gone bad.

At its eBay Live community conference this week, the online auction giant offered details on more generous PayPal protections and incentives for its top sellers, and also feted the anniversary of its Kijiji classified ad service.

Starting in the fall, the company says it will cover 100 percent of an item's purchase price on most transactions for buyers who use eBay's PayPal service, with no cap on coverage. The policy addresses items that are not received by buyers and those that are … Read more

How would you like having one of your main competitors sitting on your board?

That's the position Craigslist found itself in after eBay bought a 28 percent share of the online classified publication in August 2004. The relationship was cordial until last July 3, when eBay launched a U.S.-version of Kijiji, its own classified Web site and Craigslist competitor.

I thought back to that day when I heard eBay had filed a lawsuit this week against Craigslist founder Craig Newmark and CEO Jim Buckmaster. The online auction service alleged that the men tried to strip eBay of … Read more

The mystery over what prompted eBay to sue Craigslist last week appears to be solved.

Apparently eBay feels that its ownership stake in Craigslist was unfairly reduced following eBay's launch of rival online classifieds service Kijiji, which went live overseas in 2005 and in the U.S. in 2007, according to the 26-page lawsuit filed in Delaware's Court of Chancery and made available by eBay on Wednesday.

According to the heavily redacted, public copy of the complaint, which names Craigslist founder Craig Newmark and CEO Jim Buckmaster, Craigslist views Kijiji as a competitive activity that cancels some shareholder … Read more

Wang Jianshuo, an avid English-language blogger based in Shanghai found this scene in the rare Shanghai snow tied to a holiday travel nightmare storm throughout much of China over the last week.

Craigslist's China sites are not particularly lively. In Beijing, English-language readers tend to head for classifieds run by the local expat magazines that's Beijing and City Weekend. Several friends, Chinese and foreign, have mentioned Kijiji as a more commonly-used alternative. At least their promotional team knows how to play in the snow!