The short answer is that Etsy started as a marketplace for purely handmade goods and then kept changing the definition of handmade till it ended up being floode

The short answer is that Etsy started as a marketplace for purely handmade goods and then kept changing the definition of handmade till it ended up being flooded by cheap, counterfeit Chinese mass manufactured goods. Naturally, Etsy sellers who believed in the original indie creed felt betrayed. This is the rough timeline over which events developed: In October 2013 Etsy redefined handmade and allowed Etsy sellers to get help with making and shipping their items. [1] [2] In early 2015 Etsy did an IPO as an effort to grow much faster.[3] Over time, a lot of China-based sellers piled in and started selling counterfeit goods at low prices - something that Etsy chose to do nothing about.[4] Its stock price tanked and class-action lawsuit was filed.[5] Sensing an opportunity, Amazon stepped in with its 'Handmade' category and lured in a lot of Etsy sellers for its launch on Oct 8, 2015. [6] Ironic, huh? [1] https://www.etsy.com/teams/7722/discussions/discuss/13091813/ https://www.etsy.com/teams/7722/discussions/discuss/13091813... [2] http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/12/opinion/etsys-industrial-revolution.html http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/12/opinion/etsys-industrial-r... [3] http://techcrunch.com/2015/03/29/unpacking-etsys-s1/ http://techcrunch.com/2015/03/29/unpacking-etsys-s1/ [4] http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-05-15/etsy-counterfeit-problems-grow-as-investors-allege-fraud http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-05-15/etsy-count... [5] http://money.cnn.com/2015/05/11/investing/etsy-stock-fall-counterfeit-warning/ http://money.cnn.com/2015/05/11/investing/etsy-stock-fall-co... [6] http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/08/business/amazon-challenges-etsy-with-strictly-handmade-marketplace.html http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/08/business/amazon-challenges... Wired has good coverage on how things evolved at Etsy over time: http://www.wired.com/2012/09/etsy-goes-pro/ http://www.wired.com/2012/09/etsy-goes-pro/ http://www.wired.com/2014/04/why-etsys-future-depends-on-leaving-behind-the-simply-handmade/ http://www.wired.com/2014/04/why-etsys-future-depends-on-lea... http://www.wired.com/2015/02/etsy-not-good-for-crafters/ http://www.wired.com/2015/02/etsy-not-good-for-crafters/ (Related HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9092872 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9092872) http://www.wired.com/2015/04/etsys-surging-ipo-shows-losing-indie-cred-pays-off/ http://www.wired.com/2015/04/etsys-surging-ipo-shows-losing-... http://www.wired.com/2015/09/etsy-embraces-mass-manufacturing/ http://www.wired.com/2015/09/etsy-embraces-mass-manufacturin... http://www.wired.com/2015/10/amazon-takes-etsy-see-whos-authentic/ http://www.wired.com/2015/10/amazon-takes-etsy-see-whos-auth...