I don't think Etsy was really a sub-market of eBay. This didn't occur to me at the time, anyway. I just thought that "handmade goods" are probably an aggregate multibillion dollar business.
I actually invested in another company that directly targets another eBay segment.
So yes, I strongly believe that other sub-markets of eBay are interesting to compete with.
Re:Ask HN: Lets talk about Etsy
by jasonlbaptiste on Friday May 21, 2010 @08:08PM
(#1369379)
I have this gut feeling that local furniture could be a huge market. Almost all my friends (even the ones with lots of money) got a large portion of their furniture from craigslist and other people.
I always wanted to build a couch search engine.
Re:Ask HN: Lets talk about Etsy
by jasonlbaptiste on Monday May 24, 2010 @02:12PM
(#1375292)
I'm kind of tempted to build this in a visual manner. I'd have to find a novel way around getting craigslist data due to their draconian API policies.
I have kinda asked this to the group, but thought I would direct it at you. Do you think other sub-markets of eBay could flourish as a separate entity? Or was Etsy just able to find a really good balance of a good market with a good audience?