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This article seems to miss a very important point: Craigslist basically operates like a nonprofit. Anyone who wants to compete with Craigslist has to have a com
by sedev 14y ago
This article seems to miss a very important point: Craigslist basically operates like a nonprofit. Anyone who wants to compete with Craigslist has to have a compelling answer to the question "how do I compete with a company that does not care about profit?" in addition to the normal questions a startup has to answer.
(for the record, I think that the way Craigslist runs things is both admirable and idiosyncratic: it works very well for them, it wouldn't necessarily work well for others)
- dredmorbius 14y agoCraigslist cares about profit. It also realizes that sustained profitability is achieved by leaving so much money on the table that any possible competitor is going to have a really hard time covering expenses. Generating positive social goodwill isn't a bad side-effect either.
- sedev 14y agoThat's also a helpful way to look at it, yes. I would say that given Mr. Newmark's personal statements, "Craigslist doesn't care about profit" is an acceptable oversimplification, and is how a competitor should probably view the situation for purposes of trying to profitably compete with Craigslist.