Kijiji.com : a Craigslist Rival.

eBay’s International classifieds site Kijiji has just been launched in the United States.

Founded and launched in 2005, Kijiji was not available in the US until now. The classifieds site was spread across several countries in Europe and Asia, and was also released in Canada, gaining its user base. Kijiji is free, though the company may offer premium seller options in the future. Given the success of eBay, there are certainly a lot of ways in which a classifieds site could be monetized once Kijiji gains traction. Simplistic in design, Kijiji has a few hints of eBay functionality, including the ability to “watch” an item, email it to a friend, and view other classifieds listings from that user. Other helpful tools include the ability to email the classifieds user directly from their listings pages, and subscribe to specific feeds based on the numerous categories Kijiji offers.

The site is a competitor to Craigslist, though eBay owns a large percent stake (25%) in the company. eBay must have some unseen plans with its growing list of subsidiary classifieds sites, as it owns several others that exist Internationally as well, some of which will be entering the US market in the future. In other eBay news, the company’s PayPal is in continued talks with MySpace for the provision of an e-commerce solution that’s in direct competition with Google Checkout.