7 ms·

Craigslist is a business. Once you stop thinking of it as a non-profit, everything Craig does makes sense. Do you think PadMapper (if they were to overtake CL

Craigslist is a business. Once you stop thinking of it as a non-profit, everything Craig does makes sense. Do you think PadMapper (if they were to overtake CL) or AirBnb or Google or anyone else will let anyone crawl their data and disrupt their revenue stream without putting up a fight? Of course not. The cognitive dissonance here is simply caused by people thinking CL is a non-profit, which he has shown it is not.

Zombieball 14y ago
I don't understand personally how padmapper interrupts Craigslist's revenue stream. All posts direct back to CL. I suppose you could argue that if padmapper found a new awesome data source to crawl & became so big they no longer needed craigslist and people stop bothering to check CL for rental postings THEN padmapper could be affecting their revenue stream.
- nostromo 14y ago
  Padmapper is for-profit, just like Craigslist. Padmapper wants to eat away at CL by taking listings directly through Padlister, which is how Padmapper makes money.
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
  - Zombieball 14y ago
    Wow, I didn't even know about Padlister until today. I understand Craigslist's point of view a bit better now.
jessriedel 14y ago
I think the standard response here is that CL clearly leaves massive amounts of money on the table. It can't be modeled well as a for-profit company. Whether or not it can be modeled as a non-profit with a coherent philosophy is debatable, but just pointing out that some of its actions seem profit-driven does not eliminate the apparent conflict with other actions.
- nollidge 14y ago
  > It can't be modeled well as a for-profit company I'm not an MBA, but why the hell not? They entice people to become regular users with all the free stuff, building a network, allowing them to make an enormous profit off of the few products they do sell. If they started charging for other things besides job ads (and the other 1 or 2 things they charge for), they could very well start losing money because of people refusing to pay and going elsewhere.
  - jessriedel 14y ago
    Here, "Money left on the table" doesn't mean "short-term money that would have long term negative consequences for the business". I means free money, that is money after you take into account the effects of various price changes. You may disagree and claim that CL's strategy of charging for nothing besides a few NY/LA business listings is for-profit optimal--and therefore that there's really no free money--but you'd be in a minority.
    - nollidge 14y ago
      Ah, I forgot that the paid listings were only for certain locations, not just certain categories.
    - dredmorbius 14y ago
      I do in fact argue that CL's strategy is profit-optimizing as a market-making and competition-avoiding strategy: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4324889 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4324889
- dredmorbius 14y ago
  Sure it can. The money left on the table builds value by: 1. Leaving very little profit margin for any potential competitor. 2. Ensuring a continued large network effect, CL's principle source of value.
  - jessriedel 14y ago

Zombieball 14y ago

I don't understand personally how padmapper interrupts Craigslist's revenue stream. All posts direct back to CL. I suppose you could argue that if padmapper found a new awesome data source to crawl & became so big they no longer needed craigslist and people stop bothering to check CL for rental postings THEN padmapper could be affecting their revenue stream.

nostromo 14y ago
Padmapper is for-profit, just like Craigslist. Padmapper wants to eat away at CL by taking listings directly through Padlister, which is how Padmapper makes money.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- Zombieball 14y ago
  Wow, I didn't even know about Padlister until today. I understand Craigslist's point of view a bit better now.

jessriedel 14y ago

I think the standard response here is that CL clearly leaves massive amounts of money on the table. It can't be modeled well as a for-profit company. Whether or not it can be modeled as a non-profit with a coherent philosophy is debatable, but just pointing out that some of its actions seem profit-driven does not eliminate the apparent conflict with other actions.

nollidge 14y ago
> It can't be modeled well as a for-profit company I'm not an MBA, but why the hell not? They entice people to become regular users with all the free stuff, building a network, allowing them to make an enormous profit off of the few products they do sell. If they started charging for other things besides job ads (and the other 1 or 2 things they charge for), they could very well start losing money because of people refusing to pay and going elsewhere.
- jessriedel 14y ago
  Here, "Money left on the table" doesn't mean "short-term money that would have long term negative consequences for the business". I means free money, that is money after you take into account the effects of various price changes. You may disagree and claim that CL's strategy of charging for nothing besides a few NY/LA business listings is for-profit optimal--and therefore that there's really no free money--but you'd be in a minority.
  - nollidge 14y ago
    Ah, I forgot that the paid listings were only for certain locations, not just certain categories.
  - dredmorbius 14y ago
    I do in fact argue that CL's strategy is profit-optimizing as a market-making and competition-avoiding strategy: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4324889 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4324889
dredmorbius 14y ago
Sure it can. The money left on the table builds value by: 1. Leaving very little profit margin for any potential competitor. 2. Ensuring a continued large network effect, CL's principle source of value.
- jessriedel 14y ago