eBay's (EBAY) Big Giveaway

eBay (EBAY) has started a free classified advertising site. It is not unlike the highly successful Craigslist. The site is called Kijiji.

According to The Wall Street Journal, eBay may start to charge for display advertising at the website at some future point in time.

The real loser, if the site becomes successful, is the large newspaper chains like McClatchy (MNI) and Gannett (GCI). They hardly need more competition for their flagging print classified sections, which are already being bled dry by online sites that charge for ad that compete with them.

"Free" makes the competition even harder.

Douglas A. McIntyre