Their 2021 revenue was $660 million, before pandemic - it was $1 Billion. Of course, it's not anywhere close to FAANG level, but better than many of the other struggling companies. I'd have that 'killed business' any day.
I don't have this experience, and regularly use Craigslist to buy and sell as I always have. Admittedly I never used it for social purposes since there were always other options, so maybe that piece took a hit over the years.
I’ve noticed the volume of actual useful stuff for sale is lower than in the past, I think due to Facebook Marketplace. Facebook doesn’t offer anything better, just constant advertisement since it’s right there on the same website people are on to serve their social media addiction.
Killed? I think it's alive and well. The Internet is full of gossip and reports that Craiglist's revenue is around $1.3+ billion with a 50+ members team. It's almost the same that OLX Groups generate with a few thousand employees.
Craigslist is likely in the best position it has been in years... They rolled out charging for service/job listing posts a few years ago and I am sure they make a ton of money.
Lots of people use craigslist regardless of Facebook marketplace or whatever else..
If any one thing killed Craigslist it was Facebook Marketplace. I used Craigslist to buy and sell things for years; I didn't even know about FB Marketplace until a friend recommended it. I swallowed my hatred of FB to give it a try and it was easily a far better experience than CL at the time. Of late I've noticed that it's become a haven for scammers which is a pretty reliable indicator of success (the scammers go where the buyers are).
Yup, if anything is killing CL, its Facebook Marketplace which is sad because Facebook Marketplace is an awful user experience even before you consider the scamming and spamming.
- The search doesn't support basic boolean modifiers such as AND, OR, NOT, or quotation (try to find a "day bed" without getting flooded with "bed" results)
- their filter complications (e.g. vehicle year) are completely hardcoded (try searching for a motorcycle instead of a vehicle and you completely lose vehicle specific filtering)
- they untoggle "local pickup only" whenever possible to force you into seeing "ships to you" results
- They will deliver you an infinite number of results even when the number of relevant results is few, including in violation of the filters you set like distance or vehicle make.
- More relevant results will end up interspersed with very irrelevant ones, forcing you to keep scrolling to find what you are looking for.
All of these things coincidentally have the result of keeping you on the site longer and seeing more ads in opposition to the implied goal of connecting buyers and sellers effectively. This is particularly bad in my opinion because every failure of FB to connect a buyer and seller is both a potential purchase of a new piece of junk and a potential trashing of the old, still functional piece of junk.
FB Marketplace is an amazing example of social network effects and the power of social networks to use them to demolish competition with a (intentionally? imo, yes) worse version of the service.
I've been trying to sell a gaming laptop on FB Marketplace for local pickup (to avoid seller fees and shipping), and I've gotten about 20 scam attempts. Of the two legit interested buyers, one was a lowballer, and the other wanted me to trade it for a pair of headphones, an iPhone 8, and some shoes (wtf?).
Facebook Marketplace just plain doesn't work for me. I want to look at things in my area but it can't work out that 400 miles away in a different country is not "in my area", and I never ever ever want to see "Delivered to your door" Argos crap.
I've heard similar things from some female friends of mine who use Craigslist for anon hookups. They've had to move to other websites, of which there are plenty.
I don't think 'killed' is the right word, it just wasn't the right platform.
> Back in the day, I would pursue Craigslist when I was bored and needed something.
Back in the day when I lived in NorCal, I would receive Craiglist via email every week to find out what shows were playing in San Fran, because that's all it was. It's like what happened to SXSW: it used to be for music, now it became some weird tech behemoth.
>I've heard similar things from some female friends of mine who use Craigslist for anon hookups.
Wouldn't that fall under the "prostitution" part of the title? From what I understand there isn't/wasn't an actual dating section it was all prostitution ads for years.
Craigslist is still around though. And they have intentionally stayed small, so I don't see how they're "getting killed".
If CL's values as a company were different, then maybe they would have decided to become a rent-seeker like Facebook, with a six-figure employee headcount and a multi-billion dollar ad business.
I don’t think Craigslist is dead . It removed the personals section to fix that problem and Craigslist is still alive and well. Sure it has a ton of competition now from FB marketplace and others but I think it is still chugging along .
I created a burner Facebook account just to use Marketplace. On day 0 I'm told that I can't use Marketplace 'yet.' Every day for a few weeks I login and check and get the same message. Sometime at the 3-4 week mark I'm told I need to add a phone number or my account will be disabled. Back to craigslist/nextdoor/etc
Edit: My fault for using a loaded term like 'burner'. I don't have a facebook account. I created a 'real' account that I intended to use for marketplace. Apparently the lack of posting and/or lack of phone number is the issue facebook has, which is the issue I have with it.
For the avoidance of doubt, Marketplace won because it's _in Facebook_, and FB push it heavily, not because it's better. It's just as full of spam, scams, and people being crap to each other.
It's the other way around. The only reason Facebook Marketplace is thriving is because of how shitty the alternative had become. Facebook's other recent product launches (like dating) haven't had close to the same reception because people saw no reason to switch.
I used to offload my used stuff on Craigslist. I was swamped with people intentionally trying to waste my time only to be lowballed at the last minute. Out of principal I would always tell them to F* off. I used to take adds down after the first person who agreed to buy it, these days the ads stays up until the money is in my hand, and I insta block anyone who tries to negotiate. Often it’s still too much of a hassle so I just donate it to charity.
Might want to look at how you're wording your ads. At least in my city, it's normal to ask "will you take $x" if the wording isn't clear that it's a firm price, and those offers usually result in a completed sale.
Author's preferred method of using Craigslist was to browse. I've always used Craigslist for single purposes - there's something specific I want to sell or buy, and that's why I'm on the site. For that - it's effective, though I do get spam messages whenever I post for sale now. Fascinating that for some, the site is/was more.
I wonder how many lines of code it takes to run Craigslist. They probably haven’t refactored much since the 90’s. The profit margin is so high who cares about putting in new code to data science spam and scam.
the people I contacted on SF Bay Area craigslist, were like seeing a Fellini movie in real life; almost exclusively active people that had little-to-no chance of networking other ways.. I really tried, it was terrible for me .. 2007'ish
Craigslist killed craigslist. lack of innovation and development really let the competition get ahead.
Facebook marketplace - as basic as it is, does a much better job of "finding" what you're looking for. In Canada, kijiji (bought by ebay at some point) took it's lunch before marketplace ate them both.
The thing that killed craigslist was a bunch of startups that took it's ideas and charged 5% for the transaction and lip service about how it is safer than "other platforms" (other platforms being craigslist).
Not saying that's good or bad, but that's what killed craigslist.
I doubt this -- starting means developing the user experience (phone friendly probably) and also getting people to hear about it (marketing). Both are hard, what you say is the easy part.
The title of this article should have also included trafficking. While it has an overlap with prostitution, it is a heinous, misunderstood, and overlooked issue. It was also the primary reason for why Craigslist removed the Personals section.
The Department of Homeland Security has a great section on their website about human trafficking, what it is, how to identify it, how to report it, and so on:
Also, Girls Educational & Mentoring Services (GEMS) has been doing a great job at not just helping to raise awareness of the issue, but also has directly helped trafficking victims get out of dangerous situations and back onto healthy paths in life:
mandeepj|3 years ago
Their 2021 revenue was $660 million, before pandemic - it was $1 Billion. Of course, it's not anywhere close to FAANG level, but better than many of the other struggling companies. I'd have that 'killed business' any day.
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/craigslist-revenue-...
BowBun|3 years ago
PaulHoule|3 years ago
Robotbeat|3 years ago
UncleOxidant|3 years ago
monkin|3 years ago
philsquared_|3 years ago
Lots of people use craigslist regardless of Facebook marketplace or whatever else..
mikece|3 years ago
enragedcacti|3 years ago
- The search doesn't support basic boolean modifiers such as AND, OR, NOT, or quotation (try to find a "day bed" without getting flooded with "bed" results)
- their filter complications (e.g. vehicle year) are completely hardcoded (try searching for a motorcycle instead of a vehicle and you completely lose vehicle specific filtering)
- they untoggle "local pickup only" whenever possible to force you into seeing "ships to you" results
- They will deliver you an infinite number of results even when the number of relevant results is few, including in violation of the filters you set like distance or vehicle make.
- More relevant results will end up interspersed with very irrelevant ones, forcing you to keep scrolling to find what you are looking for.
All of these things coincidentally have the result of keeping you on the site longer and seeing more ads in opposition to the implied goal of connecting buyers and sellers effectively. This is particularly bad in my opinion because every failure of FB to connect a buyer and seller is both a potential purchase of a new piece of junk and a potential trashing of the old, still functional piece of junk.
FB Marketplace is an amazing example of social network effects and the power of social networks to use them to demolish competition with a (intentionally? imo, yes) worse version of the service.
datpuz|3 years ago
wyager|3 years ago
Gordonjcp|3 years ago
lazide|3 years ago
sbf501|3 years ago
I don't think 'killed' is the right word, it just wasn't the right platform.
> Back in the day, I would pursue Craigslist when I was bored and needed something.
Back in the day when I lived in NorCal, I would receive Craiglist via email every week to find out what shows were playing in San Fran, because that's all it was. It's like what happened to SXSW: it used to be for music, now it became some weird tech behemoth.
CalChris|3 years ago
And coincidentally Craig Newmark is a billionaire.
yucky|3 years ago
Wouldn't that fall under the "prostitution" part of the title? From what I understand there isn't/wasn't an actual dating section it was all prostitution ads for years.
rchaud|3 years ago
If CL's values as a company were different, then maybe they would have decided to become a rent-seeker like Facebook, with a six-figure employee headcount and a multi-billion dollar ad business.
ab_testing|3 years ago
johnmaguire|3 years ago
johncessna|3 years ago
Edit: My fault for using a loaded term like 'burner'. I don't have a facebook account. I created a 'real' account that I intended to use for marketplace. Apparently the lack of posting and/or lack of phone number is the issue facebook has, which is the issue I have with it.
danpalmer|3 years ago
paxys|3 years ago
cjbgkagh|3 years ago
ozim|3 years ago
Anything that is meh but someone from friends or family would like I give away.
Then I throw away. Even giving stuff away for free can be too much hassle if you put stuff online.
1123581321|3 years ago
dimitrios1|3 years ago
plasma_beam|3 years ago
Bubble_Pop_22|3 years ago
Does anybody know of other websites like this, perhaps in other countries?
VK.com essentially gets by just by copying American social media companies functionality and offering them to people living in the former USSR.
hbarka|3 years ago
SeanAnderson|3 years ago
> They don't move around things for change the design for the sake of change.
should omit "move around things for" or "change the design for"
boring_twenties|3 years ago
Khelavaster|3 years ago
mistrial9|3 years ago
tgtweak|3 years ago
Facebook marketplace - as basic as it is, does a much better job of "finding" what you're looking for. In Canada, kijiji (bought by ebay at some point) took it's lunch before marketplace ate them both.
throwaway23234|3 years ago
Not saying that's good or bad, but that's what killed craigslist.
mistrial9|3 years ago
dboreham|3 years ago
thepasswordis|3 years ago
lifeplusplus|3 years ago
Minor49er|3 years ago
The Department of Homeland Security has a great section on their website about human trafficking, what it is, how to identify it, how to report it, and so on:
https://www.dhs.gov/blue-campaign/what-human-trafficking
Also, Girls Educational & Mentoring Services (GEMS) has been doing a great job at not just helping to raise awareness of the issue, but also has directly helped trafficking victims get out of dangerous situations and back onto healthy paths in life:
https://www.gems-girls.org/
Minor49er|3 years ago