European replacements for American popular websites

July 29, 2009 2:18 AM

European equivalents for popular American websites?

I'm looking for European replacements for popular American websites: craigslist, ebay, amazon, facebook etc (but not limited to these four). For example the Polish use Gadu-Gadu, the Hungarians use iWiw, etc.

I'm also interested in cheap airline website replacements for Expedia and FlySpy.

Links to previous AskMes appreciated.

posted by yegga to Travel & Transportation (27 answers total)

I don't now about a Europe-wide alternative for craigslist, but at least Ebay, Amazon, Facebook and Expedia have localized sites for most European countries, and are, for the most part, leading the market in the respective countries as well. Simply try the domains with a country's top level domain (.fr, .de, .co.uk etc.).
posted by uncle harold at 2:27 AM on July 29, 2009 [1 favorite]

Gumtree is the UK's equivalent to Craigslist.

Priceline has a UK equivalent (similar to Expedia).
posted by cooker girl at 2:29 AM on July 29, 2009

Facebook: In the Netherlands hyves.nl is very popular
Craigslist: gumtree.com (mostly UK)

For flights I use either Expedia or ebookers.co.uk
posted by wingless_angel at 2:30 AM on July 29, 2009

There is also Opodo for flights.
posted by uncle harold at 2:32 AM on July 29, 2009

in Denmark the (one of, if not the largest) ebay/craigslist equivalent is Den Blå Avis, even though, as uncle harold states there are localized sites. But I see I difference between a "presence" and what's actually fulfilling the function.
posted by alchemist at 2:33 AM on July 29, 2009

For France, keeping in mind that they'll be in French (I didn't link them purposefully, since some have annoying pop-ups, but you can type them into Google and find their adresses easily):

Craigslist/ebay sort-of-equivalents: PriceMinister, Kelkoo, Twenga and others. Ebay.fr is well-used here too.

Amazon: Fnac, Darty, Decitre, Chapitre.com, and others. Book prices can't be discounted beyond 5% in France, so online bookstores have a harder time. Decitre was brick-and-mortar before going online (they still are). As for home electronics, Fnac and Darty are also well-established brick-and-mortar stores.

Facebook: Copains d'Avant (copainsdavant.linternaute.com), but people are moving to Facebook now that it's been translated into French.

For travel there are Voyages-SNCF (pretty nice for train tickets, they also sell flights and even hotel stays now) and Opodo, as well as several others.
posted by fraula at 2:34 AM on July 29, 2009 [2 favorites]

I forgot my own favorite — for everything computing-related, LDLC is excellent. (ldlc.com)
posted by fraula at 2:37 AM on July 29, 2009

It might be worth noting that Den Blå Avis (which alchemist mentioned) is a print classifieds newspaper that also has a web presence. The online section works pretty similarly to the print paper (and runs off the same source ads), in that it's free to place a small ad, but you have to buy the paper (or pay a small amount to get access to contact details on the website for a 24 hour period, the closest approximation to buying a paper they could come up with, I reckon).

Facebook's pretty big in Denmark, and yes, it is localised. There are a variety of online shops, of which I'm only familiar with a handful, and don't feel I can properly speak on this matter, other than to mention CDON.com (and their .dk .se .no and so on subsites) as fulfilling much the same niche as Amazon. The nearest actual Amazon is the .de, and doesn't tend to see much use from Danes, as far as I know.
posted by Dysk at 2:48 AM on July 29, 2009

kijiji.de is the German equivalent of Craigslist. There are localized sites for Craigslist but they seem to be used mainly by expats.
posted by chillmost at 3:25 AM on July 29, 2009

I have to correct Brother Dysk's comment about paying to get access to contact details. Now the emails and phone information is free on the DBA.dk web page.

On each ad's page you'll read "Kontaktoplysninger & info - Nu gratis for alle" which translates as "Contact details & information - Now free to all"
posted by alchemist at 3:43 AM on July 29, 2009

alchemist, det må da være relativt nyt? Sidste sommer måtte jeg betale for at bruge hjemmesiden, mener jeg... Men jo, jeg tog fejl.

[alchemist, that must be relatively new? Last summer I had to pay to use the website, as far as I remember... But yeah, my mistake.]
posted by Dysk at 3:45 AM on July 29, 2009

You say Europe but here is an AskMe you might find helpful: How to shop online in the UK.
posted by like_neon at 4:17 AM on July 29, 2009

For the UK it is worth saying that several of the sites you mentioned do not really have stand-alone equivalents:
Amazon.com >> Amazon.co.uk, (Amazon.fr, Amazon.de)
Ebay.com >> Ebay.co.uk
Expedia.com >> Expedia.co.uk
Facebook >> Facebook
Kayak.com >> Kayak.co.uk

Non-English speaking countries are more likely to have a separate brand in place.
posted by rongorongo at 4:23 AM on July 29, 2009 [1 favorite]

Although Facebook is increasing in popularity here, studivz.de (university/college), schuelervz.de (high school) and meinvz.de (everyone else) are the German equivalent.
posted by Skybly at 4:36 AM on July 29, 2009

bebo.ie was a myspace/facebook equivalent that was very popular when I was in college in Ireland a few years ago. It seems less popular now though. I have seen bebo sites for a few other countries (germany, uk) and they seem pretty big also.
posted by a womble is an active kind of sloth at 4:39 AM on July 29, 2009

In Poland:

Allegro.pl => online auctions (there's also ebay.pl but it's not as popular)
nasza-klasa.pl => social networking (facebook / myspace are very popular too)
gumtree.pl => free classifieds
empik.pl => books, cd's, dvd's, etc.
praca.pl => jobs
posted by juva at 5:04 AM on July 29, 2009

Response by poster: thank you, these answers are helpful. as alchemist points out, having an online presence means little if it isn't the default for the majority.

any more east european/balkan/iberian/scandinavian sites you can think of? also: please consider russia as europe.
posted by yegga at 5:12 AM on July 29, 2009

Response by poster: And: what's the equivalent of Mefi in these countries?
posted by yegga at 5:13 AM on July 29, 2009

Despite its US-centric tendencies, MeFi is fairly international, and doesn't really have much of any equivalent (unless you count other aggregating link/discussion sites, in which case the US replacement for MeFi is Digg or something, by the criteria we're using).

Back on topic, for Denmark still:
Saxo.com is a reasonably big online book and music retailer (so think Amazon-esque - they used to be tied to a brick-and-mortar chain, but have been completely independent for a few years now) and bogbasen.dk is kind of a craigslist/ebay/Amazon marketplace exclusively for books. I have no idea how much these get used, though Saxo at least seems to be rather successful.
posted by Dysk at 5:35 AM on July 29, 2009

In the Netherlands, Markplaats is a good alternative to Craigslist.
posted by transporter accident amy at 7:19 AM on July 29, 2009

For Turkey,
Ebay- gittigidiyor.com
Amazon- idefix.com
Peapod.com- Kangurum
posted by caelumluna at 7:51 AM on July 29, 2009

clickflatshare.co.uk is used fairly widely in England. skyscanner.com is often the easiest place to find cheap airline tickets, although they aren't quite so effective recently. hostelz.com is the best site for hostels since they give you the url, email, and telephone even if you don't book.
posted by jeffburdges at 8:09 AM on July 29, 2009

Sweden
For low-cost airlines Skyscanner (but don't bother flying on them, IMHO, its just not worth it, unless you are in twenties.)
I use Kelkoo flights for regular flights, it will search for the fares offers of local travel agents like kelkoo UK will offer you UK retailers and Kelkoo Sweden will offer you Swedish retailers.
For price comparison of almost any product in Sweden, Prisjakt (In fact, I am looking for US alternative to Prisjakt, absolutely fabulous website, you can filter down product of your interest with very high precision) Others include, Pricerunner
For Financial issues comparison, for Sweden, Compriser
Craiglist alternative, Blocket, Grannarna
Ebay alternative, Tradera
Compare phone (contract) prices, Telepriskollen

There is no alternative to amazon, there are truckloads of store offering competitive prices, check Prisjakt.
posted by zaxour at 11:00 AM on July 29, 2009 [2 favorites]

Low cost airlines are great when you don't know your return date! Just buy all the dates you might need for like 15 euros each, much cheaper than waiting for until you can pin down a return date.
posted by jeffburdges at 12:37 PM on July 29, 2009 [1 favorite]

In Germany, kijiji.de is used more than Craigslist (which is mostly used by expats), but it's nowhere near as popular or widespread as Craigslist is in the US. For the equivalent of the roommate/housing search bits of Craigslist, studenten-wg.de and wg-gesucht.de are great. Better than Craigslist, actually, since it's easier to search using very specific criteria, and there are separate spaces to enter info on number and gender of current roommates, utilities covered, neighborhood, etc. studivz.de is still probably more widespread than Facebook, though I don't use any social networking stuff and thus may be wrong. Never tried to order anything from an Amazon or eBay equivalent.
posted by ubersturm at 1:01 PM on July 29, 2009

Norway:

FINN.no > Ebay/Craigslist

The Netherlands:

bol.com > Amazon.com

Russia (and, according to Wikipedia, Belarus and Ukraine):

Vkontakte > Facebook
posted by Bukvoed at 4:57 PM on July 29, 2009

Social networking in Ukraine and Russia (also other former Soviet republics but I'm not sure how popular it is there) :

odnoklassniki.ru
odnoklassniki.ua


I also forgot to mention Poland's most popular dating site: sympatia.pl
posted by juva at 12:42 AM on July 30, 2009