eBay has picked up two additions to its classified advertising business, called Kijiji.
The first is London-based Gumtree.com, founded five years ago by former bankers Michael Pennington and Simon Crookall. The community site, which offers listings for flat rentals and jobs, boasts 1.1 million unique visits each month.
The first UK acquisition for eBay, Gumtree runs sites in several cities across the UK as well as in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.
Clive Gringras, head of e-commerce at Olswang, the law firm that assisted eBay in the Gumtree acquisition, said: "Gumtree, like Craigslist and Marketplaats, operates in a fascinating new sector for eBay."
The second purchase is Loquo.com, a similar, Barcelona-based localised classifieds site which was founded in 2002 and covers cities in Spain and other European countries.
Both will be added to eBay's Kijiji network of local sites.
Financial details were not disclosed for either deal and eBay said it does not expect the acquisitions to impact its 2005 earnings significantly.
Talkback
As regular customers of Gumtree advertising for over 2 years we can say it was very beneficial for both parties workers and customers.
However, the last several months the Gumtree staff who place adverts have changed their attitude, specifically towards the working people. We believe this has also negative effect for customers who are looking for specific tradesman.
In London, there are European & Antipodian tradesmen, which is good for a cooperation and exchange of experience. However, in the last several months the Gumtree personnel have changed their tactics towards the work seeking force. In the past was needed no more than 2 hours for ad to be shown on the website. But, in the last several months most of ads are not coming out for 7-9 hours, sometimes for 24 hours.
For several days the ads (after placing) under sections work wanted & services have been on hold-kept out of website by Gumtree staff, and on the top of sections was placed only specific advertisement of Kiwi company. So, it means that this company’s ad was deliberately placed (with few others) on the top of the web page. The other job seekers / services were on hold. All priority was given to this company to take over the customers, whereas the other job seekers (competitors to this company), were eliminated by Gumtree staff to get chance for employment. This is betrayal for those who are not Antipodeans, and by this way they are restricted to be competitive on the non-Antipodean market.
The “equal opportunities” and treatment to all users of the services provided by Gumtree staff should be given some attention and a review.
We are taking an opportunity to introduce and recommend excellent website that offers free advertising and gives equal opportunities to all users, which is http://www.tntmagazine.com/uk/. All advertisements appear immediately after submitting them and thus it represents an excellent and beneficial way of advertising for all users who advertise on this website.
Tradesmen from London
Tradesmen of London sto whining.....the gumtree has been an excellent site for advertising etc as is shown by the number of adverts on it......my only problem now is that I cannot access it at all...maybe e-bay, whose site is impossible to use - have screwed that up as welol
ah well, all good things come to an end
S. Adams
I absolutely agree with Tradesmen opinion & disagree with 'Retired'. Probably, Gumtree is an excellent website for retired people & people who are looking for a fun. However, it is only beneficial & suitable for certain nationalities that have their own representatives run by this company: Antipodeans (NZ, Australians & South Africans) & Polish.
Dear Sir,
I am the Director of Interlet a reputable letting and Accommodation agency in Kensington London.
We have been advertising with gum tree and suddenly all our ads were remove without any notice.
Subsequently, we received an email from Mark who said we have been suspended because there has been complaints.
We have written to him and the head office stating that we should be given the opportunity to prove our innocence before removing the ads or placing defamatory or libel statements on google and gum tree thereby damaging the companies reputation and business.
We do hope you will investigate this matter immediately as i have instructed a top lawyer to take an action against ebay and Gum tree.
Costs for legal cost and damage to the reputation of the business will also be made.
The Accommodation Agency act of 1953 "makes it an offence to demand or accept payment of any sum of money in consideration of registering, or undertaking to register, the name or requirements of any person seeking the tenancy of a house."
Reputable internet listing sites do not accept adverts from agencies that charge prospective tenants upfront fees before they've secured them accommodation.
It is an unethical practice for agencies like Interlet to bill tenants a large admin fee before they've even shown them a property.
There are many critical postings on the internet from disappointed tenants who sign up to the handful of agencies in the UK that do this only to subsequently find out that the adverts that lured them into parting with a hefty fee appear to be at the very least, out of date, and at the very worst, fake. The tenants subsequently find are not shown accommodation of a similar standard, location or cost to those displayed on the company website or advertisements.
If anybody cares to really look into what Gumtree do they will be surprised to see that there are lots of people out there, who have placed an ad on Gumtree, an email sent from Gumtree suggests it needs to be changed, you then try and change it and they have taken it off the site, without giving you your money back. i thought I was the only one, but believe you me im not. Email after Email is sent to them but no response, and they still keep your money. No London office to call, or anyone to contact, its very bad
if anybody wants to comment please do
so can someone tell me; do you have to pay to list on gumtree? the last comment intimates that you do.
Last time I checked, listings were free unless you want to place them more prominently than others.