No doubt classifieds is a hot category and just getting hotter. The recent sale of content and jobs site (for editors and other media types) MediaBistro to JupiterMedia (not to be confused with JupiterResearch) for $23 million is interesting. It may signal more acquisitions to come in the classifieds segment (and may represent a price benchmark of sorts). One could classify MediaBistro as a niche jobs site, although it offers considerably more than simply jobs boards.
Below the level of the big players in the major segments (Jobs, Cars, Real Estate) there are lots and lots of companies, and more coming. There are also more sites that are going to be increasingly combining classifieds and other types of local content (products, yp listings) toward more comprehensive or mashed up local marketplaces.
I would imagine that there will be some consolidation coming for those that are very focused and reasonably well established — MediaBistro for example has been around for about as long as Craigslist — or those that are newer but have relatively high visibility.
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Related: eBay Launches Kijiji in the US.
Screenwerk 