I know there are a lot of smaller, niche, city targeted sites that are classified ads, but really CL completely dominates the market and I don't see anything/anyone out there challenging them.

The site probably took an afternoon to code, hasn't changed much since it launched and doesn't market itself at all. We have an abundance of search engines, numerous book sellers, endless news outlets ... why only one classified ad site?

Any thoughts?

Arthur


FYI: I like CL, just curious why there are no competitors.

Because you didn't build them!

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Laura Bergells
http://www.maniactive.com

ah ... thanks for the support

Hi There -

Tough to compete with a dominating success like Craigslist -- ask eBay. eBay? Yup... they're trying to give Craigslist a run for their money... see this article:
Mashable: Ebay launches ANOTHER site to compete with eBay

- Scott

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Scott Frangos
WebFadds.com - Dynamic Blog & CMS Website Solutions

Actually, there are. Thousands of them. Little known, lesser visited sites of little or no value.

The question should really be, "Why did CR succeed in such a big way, when all other attempts to make such a site, prior to and subsequent to CR, failed"?

I suspect that it might have something to do with social marketing and/or viral marketing, maybe some good SEO, too. Sprinkle in some hard work (more than an afternoon's worth, I'm sure!) and some dumb luck, and there you have it!!!

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it!

The domain was Created: 1997-09-11 and according to the waybackmachine the first record for the site was Dec 02, 1998 and it was a much smaller classified site until June of 2000. While they did add more categories around this time they were only serving the San Fran area. A short time later, according to the WBM sometime in August of 2000 they began adding other cities and even a couple in Australia. Now they may have been serving other areas before this but I am getting this info from the Way Back Machine so it isn't going to be all inclusive.

As far as good SEO being behind the site's popularity - that isn't the case as some quick checks reveal that the relevancy numbers are quite low. The site was more than likely one of the first social networking sites out and on the Internet being first at something can give you a huge advantage. Another possible reason the site did well early on probably has to do with their Personals section. If enough people get lucky while using the system well then you know that the word is going to spread faster than a hooker's legs when Charlie Sheen walks into a brothel. (Sorry Chuck I couldn't help myself)

Lastly - the site is too easy to use and it is completely free and remains so without a bunch of schlocky ads gumming up the works.

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You can lead a blonde to reason but you can't make her think!

I think that they had thier biggest jump in plublicity when there was a woman that tried to sell her baby on the site and it made the news. That kind of plublicity is priceless.


That was the first time I have heard of CL and I have been a user ever since.

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If the world seems to be dragging you down consider gravity as a cause!
-RYK
www.rklwebs.com

The market for classified ads displays many characteristics of what economists would call a natural monopoly.

All things being equal, there's a number of benefits to online buyers and sellers from having a single, dominant marketplace. Basically, if you're selling, you want to be where the most buyers are and if you're buying, you want to be where the most sellers are.

The same thinking applies to the market for online auctions and even job postings. Who wants to list a valuable item on an auction site with only a trickle of traffic? It won't reach its full potential value without LOTS of buyers seeing it. Likewise, who wants to post jobs on a site with no job seekers? Who would post their resume on a site with no employers? So a majority of us gravitate towards eBay and sites like Monster/CareerBuilder.

But, since Craigslist is as much real world as virtual, their success ultimately comes from dominating city by city. Hence, they've expanded quickly, leveraged their positive brand name, and relied on revenues from a sliver of their site to fund free postings everywhere else. For a new start-up, it's hard to compete with free!

Make sense?

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adverlicio.us | online advertising archive

I actually have used Free classifieds with success.

It reminds me of craigslist, just not as big.

Happy Thursday!

CoraLyn

Well here in the UK I think you'd be hard pushed to find many people who know about CraigsList, let alone people who actually use it.

A large UK based one is: Ad Trader classifieds, Free local classified ads with images - 584,096 ads online now. - they also run a lot of local free ad's papers.

And for Cars, Bikes etc. we use Auto Trader UK - Buy & Sell New & Used Cars, Car Loans, Car Insurance

I'm not sure what the big fuss about craigslist is - it looks very amateur. Personally its not for me.

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Middlesbrough | Sunderland | Darlington

There is a site somewhat similar to CL. CoolerAds (, - Free Online Classifieds: Local Classifieds, Coupons, Products, News and more!) is working with local community newspapers to bring them online with classifieds, print ads and business tools, which give local businesses the ability to post products, coupons and news about their business. The information on the site is geocoded, so when the user visits the site, they will see content local to their location. But, the site also allows the user to expand their radius to view ads and such from other locations. It's more than just classifieds, so that is why I say somewhat similar.

Jay

You've got to be joking! Or, perhaps you've figured out a way to make more money with content writing jobs by using Kijiji. If the latter, please tell us how?

On the Kijiji "programmers" list in Atlanta, there were approximately 5 jobs listed during a 3 month period and I saw one that was not even in Atlanta. Having only 5 similar jobs listed a DAY on Craigslist is a small number. I usually see many more PER DAY on Craigslist.

A quick glance in a few other categories was all I needed to write this response with relative confidence. Kijiji is not even a minor competitor to Craigslist. I just wish I had thought of Craigslist first.

olx.com just raised $13M in vc. it launched a couple of years ago and is basically a craigslist clone w/a cl 2.0 look. smart founder concentrated on markets outside the us (where cl had no traction). it is "the largest classified ads website you never heard of."

Because the Americans are not satisfied before they own every single bit on the internet. Look at the second link in my signature.

1. Try site navigation.
2. Click links in the upper right corner.
3. Click "Start" (don't click on a submenu) on the main menu at the left of the toolbar.
4. Got it?

Source: Google Update, PageRank, Backlink Information - Start Here

She is a dmoz editor.

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Kjell Gunnar Bleivik:: Financial information at your fingertips
Learn object oriented programming where it started

One it was pet project for free classified as key being free .I think one was the city if it Hope AK it probably would have died there 2 I agree with the former poster publicly it has gotten a lot of free publicity since it was started. 3 word of month that’s how I found out about the site. 4open niche in city + publicity + a little luck

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LT1 Engine Performance | Make money online

I think of the Web as being worldwide, not just the USA and here in Asia where I am Graigslist is of very little value at all. I believe the main reason for its popularity is because it was one of the first so it has been around for longer than almost anyone else.

We all know that most people don't necessarily use or buy what is best. Most will use or buy something just because a lot of others are using or buying it (Windows is a perfect example).

I built globalsources.com in 1995 and managed it for some years and although it is essentially a business to business site it was by far the biggest site in Asia with products for sale until after I resigned, then alibaba.com took its place in the number one spot and globalsources.com has almost disappeared. Graigslist constantly appears in the search engine results but I have never found it of any value at all to me in Asia.

I have a number of sites that include classified ads such as carsalesasia.com and a few that I have tried and scrapped because the flood of spam is far greater than the number of genuine advertisers.

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http://carsalesasia.com
http://deep-field-relaxation.com
http://motorcycleasia.net etc

My guess is that one generalized classified site is enough - and enough specialized sites do exist. For example, we at Wessel Gun Shop have used GunsAmerica - Connecting Gun Buyers to Gun Sellers Since 1997 for years; during that period, it was a classified site for those who had guns for sale.

Nother poster's reference to "one auction site" was amusing for two reasons: EBay denies access to those who wish to sell guns, gun parts, etc. - anything a gun needs to make it work. What did the gun market do? Created GunBroker.com Online Gun Auction and AuctionArms.com - Online Gun Auction, that's what. Like GunsAmerica, these two auction sites started out serving those who wanted to sell (or buy!) guns, gun parts, gun accessories, etc. Eventually, anything gunny started showing up, from gun dogs to hunting properties!

Craigslist will endure as long as it serves its market; every arbitrary limit it places on posting will constrict its appeal that much more. Let them take heed.

Eric Sanders
Wessel Gun Shop, Inc. - New & Used Guns Bought & Sold

Here's a good classified site..If your trying to sell something or promote your site..You can place an ad in any city, state..and they show up in the search engines. I've used this one before..

http://www.kijiji.com/

I am standing by original statement/question ... there are no real competitors for CL. Kijiji is international and while we have a ton of people posting links here, most are small sites with no real content.

Interesting! Maybe it is like eBay, people flock to where the listings are and listings flock to where the people are. So without some significant differentiator, there is no need for two standalone sites like CL.

Just a thought.

ArthurNYC (actually in NYC now and not FLA ... woo hoo)