I was surprised to see this item in the Good Morning Silicon Valley newsletter from the San Jose Mercury as I had breakfast, at about 1:30 this afternoon. My civilian friend keeps sending me links to CL ads to prove "you can get anything on Craig's List: last time it was new-made black powder cannons.
"The seamy underbelly of craigslist vs. eBay, wrapped in a family-friendly package: Craigslist, which has been under fire on and off for years regarding ads placed on its site that appear to be related to prostitution, this week pointed a finger at its nemesis/part owner down the bay: eBay.
In a post on the company blog Monday, craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster said San Jose-based eBay’s classified site in Spain, Loquo.com, “features thousands of paid ads offering various sexual acts in exchange for money.” TechCrunch wrote a couple of days ago that eBay has since made Loquo inaccessible from the U.S., and GMSV got the following message when we tried to access the site this morning: “Our apologies, LoQUo is not available in your country.”
It doesn’t seem Buckmaster is naive enough to think his finger-pointing will take the heat off his company, but he appears to be doing his best to counter the perception, such as that perpetuated by a Facebook page titled “Stop Craigslist Human Trafficking - Choose Ebay Classifieds,” that eBay is more family-friendly than craigslist. While Buckmaster says his company has “a stringent manual screening process, and policies and procedures aimed specifically at combating exploitation and trafficking,” he says, “there is no sign of eBay manually reviewing ads for content, instructing users to report suspected trafficking or exploitation of minors, or providing contacts for legal authorities or NGO hotlines.” GMSV calls seeking comment from eBay were not returned.
In another post Wednesday, Buckmaster went into more detail about craigslist’s screening process, which he says is unique. He says that since May 2009, each “adult services” ad posted on the site is manually reviewed by a licensed attorney. He closed the post by saying: “In addition to public nudges such as this blog entry, we’d like to offer our help to companies such as eBay and Backpage that may be interested in developing best practices.” Backpage is a rival online classifieds site.
Buckmaster’s moves to proclaim craigslist’s vigilance throws fuel on the fire of its ongoing battle with eBay. The two Bay Area companies have been embroiled in legal proceedings over how much of a stake — it’s somewhere between 24 percent and 28.4 percent — the San Jose-based online auction giant really owns in craigslist. The eBay vs. Craig Newmark trial, which accused craigslist of diluting eBay’s stake in the company, played out over two weeks in December 2009 in Delaware. (Newmark is craigslist’s founder.) GMSV could find no reports of a resolution to that trial; it appears the matter is unsettled.
Craigslist vs. eBay, which claims eBay engaged in unfair competition — including starting a rival classified service, Kijiji — and “other deceptive practices” after it bought a stake in eBay in 2004, has yet to go to court, but is scheduled to be tried in San Francisco Superior Court. If the trial happens before the fall elections, there is speculation it may affect the campaign of California Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman, who was CEO of eBay when it bought the stake in craigslist."
