eBay’s Kijiji classified service is quietly growing across North America. Kijiji is a cool advertising media for local products and services and analysts predict it will take a toll on the newspaper industry.
In the first quarter of 2007, according to MediaDailyNews:
Automotive classified revenues fell 20.1%, real estate fell 14.2% and employment fell 14.3% compared to the same period last year.
The continual addition of online alternatives and the demographics of print readers, not to mention the push towards a “Green economy”, will affect most forms of print media. Bill Gates predicts that in 5 years, the print yellow pages advertising will be obsolete.