yeah it's all network effect and branding. Kijiji has been having problems finding a foot hold anywhere. Just the same way olx.com has got gotten big in the USA but is big internationally.
At flugpo we are building a craigslist competitor that has better everything. But it's hard to get a large foothold anywhere with out being able to focus on a market and work at it for a long time.
srry not to be mean but you totally missed the market craigslist is actually better than your site... we are working on a competitor but only in germany.
kijiji and other sites are doing just fine outside the US. CL was a bit late to those markets. Likely, that means that there are lots of smaller, local competitors rather than big competitors.
http://www.flugpo.com
At flugpo we are building a craigslist competitor that has better everything. But it's hard to get a large foothold anywhere with out being able to focus on a market and work at it for a long time.