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A comment on Ask HN: How would you beat Craigslist?.

Re:Ask HN: How would you beat Craigslist? by christphrdunder on Thursday November 24, 2011 @12:01AM (#3273142)
There's plenty you could do to make a better Craigslist, simply because they're so slow to roll out any new features. As a result, there's a large number of websites and mobile apps built to augment the basic functionality of vanilla Craigslist.

But I highly doubt you could have any success grabbing market share, because none of these functional shortcomings are enough of a problem to the Average User that they'd be interested in using a service with no reputation. Not to mention the network effect.

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Re:Ask HN: How would you beat Craigslist? by memtap on Thursday November 24, 2011 @01:22AM (#3273384)
Definitely agree that Craigslist could be a better site; but what about a better business? It seems that most of the sites that have taken on Craigslist have offered technical improvements; I.e. mobile apps and social integration.

What about non-technical innovation? What about an aggressive, real world sales force that solicits businesses?

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: How would you beat Craigslist? by polyfractal on Thursday November 24, 2011 @08:03AM (#3274179)
Sales forces are very expensive. Case in point: Groupon has a lot of revenue, but still does not turn a profit. That's because Groupon needs a giant sales force to hunt down the deals.

CL is making a lot of money precisely because they are relatively lightweight.

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