Shanti’s Dispatches

I think eBay has realized that there’s no use in going head-to-head with Craigslist. (Not to mention they own something like 25% of CL.)

Instead, looks like they’re trying to make an end-run around it in non-CL dominated markets.

They’ve stealthy launched Kijiji,which means “village” in Swahili:

Hopefully Kijiji helps bring back a bit more of the “village” feeling in our own communities. The internet has done wonders to help bring ideas and people together from all over the world - but what about helping to create a deeper sense of community right in your own neighborhood?

EBay has some great roots… but there’s just something that feels not quite right about a global mega-corporation trying to create a grassroots community site, a la Craigslist.

Ebay worked when Omidyar started it from his garage for all the opposite reasons that they have going for them today. He built eBay in such a away out of necessity, due to limited resources.

If I were eBay, I’d hire 25 tech entrepreneurs from the “global village” - pay each one a Ramen Noodle Salary (enough to live off), and give them a cut in the equity of the respective Kijiji-like creations. Give them system resources like server space, etc. Then watch them duke it out in the marketplace, each in their own respective markets. I believe they used to call this “skunkworks” - though this is an extreme example, where the parent corporation would basically relent all control over what the independent entrepreneur would create.

One thing about community, is that you can’t try too hard to create it. Community is something that just happens. It springs up out of people’s desire to connect, not to create wealth.

That’s partly why we’ve gone into stealth-mode over at the labs. Right now we’re just a community of 4-5 guys. Maybe we’ll create a great service one of these days and grow beyond that, maybe not. It’s just fun to kick back and have a few IMs with fellow entreprehackers, all working towards the same common goals.