
Craigslist and why it survived the bubble - veritas
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6419461.stm
======
juwo
It is interesting that the real reason why craigslist succeeds is not
mentioned. IMHO, it's because of being like a *local* classifieds, free, and
without word limits. Also, the local dating, I suppose. I dont think it was
unique either. In 1994, when I was a outsource programmer at a Dallas telco,
there was a hugely popular newsgroup on the company intranet where people
bought and sold stuff, told each other of local events, and was a kind of
meeting ground. I tried to get my bosses at other places where I worked at, to
do this - but the fears of legalities always killed it.

------
bootload
Just the data: Cragslist survived because it was not *greedy*. The founders
recognised that community matters and only charge small fees for placement. CL
as a team are also pretty smart because they cannibalised newspaper listings.
CL saw the market before the newspapers & seized it.

From memory CL currently runs on about USD20 Million / year gained form paid
adverts. No fancy designs, just the data.

~~~
dougw
Indeed, it has been widely noted that craigslist's authenic feel (hyped by the
.org TLD) and community fostering ruggedness has created a cult-like
following. It seems that their lack of graphics, change, and heavy UI
development has kept the installed user base, well, installed, and growing.

http://www.startupnation.com/pages/newsroom/PR_2006_0128.asp

~~~
bootload
'... lack of graphics, change, and heavy UI development ...'

this is also a cheapskate way of concentrating on the development & lowering
costs. Such cutting edge (performance wise) technology reminds me of the
Mercedes Benz silver cars ~ <http://tinyurl.com/2ufx36> ~ so called because
they stripped back the paint to save pounds to enter Le Mons. In this case
stripping back graphics to allow good scaling.

Thanks for the link.

