News is out this week that eBay classified ads sites are trouncing the competition. In the US Kijiji has overtaken both Yahoo! Classifieds and Windows Live Expo, and are so far ahead of Google Base and Google Classifieds that they don’t even register on the radar. Craigslist (which eBay owns a stake in) stands out at as the market leader in the US, but Kijiji is now 6th most popular.
Back here in the UK however it’s Gumtree that’s making ground. Gumtree is now the undisputed market leader in the online classified ads business with eight million visitors in January alone. Gumtree is the number one classified site in the UK ahead of both Autotrader and Rightmove (source – Nielsen). Last week Gumtree saw their 20,000,000th listing placed on the site.
What is it about classified ads that’s making these sites so popular? A mix of time, ease of use and convenience appears to be the key. Why wait until next Thursday for the local free ads newspaper to drop through your door when you can be online hunting for the item you need immediately? Whether it be a new job, a house an item you need to buy, or simply a quick way to list that item you need to dispose of, online is instant. More importantly Gumtree is free to use in all categories bar recruitment and property (and in property you only pay if you’re a professional landlord or estate agent). The only other time you’ll pay is if you want to feature your ad to get more exposure on the site.
eBay’s classified ads sites will certainly become more important to the group in the future and over the next few weeks we’ll take a closer look at Gumtree and what it has to offer. In the meantime if you’re looking for business premises, staff for your eBay business, or simply have an item to dispose of or to procure then take a look at your local Gumtree site and let us know how you get on.
6 Responses
I would love to have a look Chris…
Except I cannot find Peterborough, which was a city last time I looked 🙂
Hey Mark, there isn’t but the London one is pretty lively and worth it’s worth a punt on the nearest ones to you (I think Nottingham and Cambridge?)
Great info. I wonder how many of ebay uk sellers post ads on gum tree and viceversa…. I believe, for some categories and specially for the casual seller it might be interesting to publish only on gumtree….
It will be interesting to know how many contacts a publisher gets on Gumtree vs Ebay listing…
Hi Mario, I was wondering the reverse… I was wondering how many eBay sellers use Gumtree as a source of stock for reselling on eBay 😯
I used to run a very nice little ID buying badly photographed goods cheap on [not-eBay] and reselling them on eBay 😀
Mario’s right though – if you’ve only got one or two things to sell, especially if they’re bulky, Gumtree’s a great bet.
Another thing that is keeping me awake at night -other than my first born that is- is why eBay is pursuing a “generalist” approach against generating different Classified Ads portals specialized in a given are (eBay motors might be trying this with their Ad approach in Uk and Germany).
As it is gumtree seems more like a bazaar than a pro marketplace.
any takes on this Chris, Sue?