3 ms·

I agree. My first startup I worked on while in college was "beating cragslist." We looked at it and laughed and said this is so old! As we went about our busine

I agree. My first startup I worked on while in college was "beating cragslist." We looked at it and laughed and said this is so old! As we went about our business, we realized there was no way we could reasonably change the world's habit of going to craigslist for {X}. That was ~8 years ago and it's still going strong. Many a start-ups have come and gone trying to revolutionize house/apt hunting. If they try to incorporate craigslist, craigslist shuts 'em down; if they try to get organic listings, craigslist beats 'em.

qq66 11y ago
Craigslist still has a lot of traffic but it's dying a death by a thousand blows. AirBnB ate the temporary housing section, OKCupid and Tinder etc. ate the dating sections, and the 1099-companies like Homejoy ate the services sections, StubHub ate the ticketing sections. Now I find myself going there mainly if I need to buy something that doesn't need a company guaranteeing the transaction, and doesn't make sense to buy online, like a vintage stereo amplifier that I can inspect on the spot.
- joslin01 11y ago
  You're not wrong, but I don't think organic shopping with other strangers is under any threat (currently). For example, I just sold my PS4 to some stranger for cash. I would be intrigued if a company could beat them there because that would likely be the final blow.
  - e12e 11y ago
    My impression is that craiglist is still rather US centric. For selling my PS4 (if I had one), I'd probably turn to the national variant (in Norway, that'd be http://www.finn.no http://www.finn.no - similar to craiglist in that it for the longest time was horribly ugly and clunky -- it's somewhat better now, but still pretty bad from a technical standpoint) -- or ebay. Out of curiosity, why craiglist and not ebay? Is ebay "too big" (you're not advertising to people in your city, that you can meet and do the handover in person, but rather to the world -- and will likely have to deal with shipping)?
    - joslin01 11y ago
      Ebay is too big, yes. I live in NYC, so I prefer to just meet someone and exchange cash & product. Going through ebay would be so much more work.

qq66 11y ago

Craigslist still has a lot of traffic but it's dying a death by a thousand blows. AirBnB ate the temporary housing section, OKCupid and Tinder etc. ate the dating sections, and the 1099-companies like Homejoy ate the services sections, StubHub ate the ticketing sections. Now I find myself going there mainly if I need to buy something that doesn't need a company guaranteeing the transaction, and doesn't make sense to buy online, like a vintage stereo amplifier that I can inspect on the spot.

joslin01 11y ago
You're not wrong, but I don't think organic shopping with other strangers is under any threat (currently). For example, I just sold my PS4 to some stranger for cash. I would be intrigued if a company could beat them there because that would likely be the final blow.
- e12e 11y ago
  My impression is that craiglist is still rather US centric. For selling my PS4 (if I had one), I'd probably turn to the national variant (in Norway, that'd be http://www.finn.no http://www.finn.no - similar to craiglist in that it for the longest time was horribly ugly and clunky -- it's somewhat better now, but still pretty bad from a technical standpoint) -- or ebay. Out of curiosity, why craiglist and not ebay? Is ebay "too big" (you're not advertising to people in your city, that you can meet and do the handover in person, but rather to the world -- and will likely have to deal with shipping)?
  - joslin01 11y ago
    Ebay is too big, yes. I live in NYC, so I prefer to just meet someone and exchange cash & product. Going through ebay would be so much more work.