"Why hasn't another product disrupted and replaced Craigslist," someone wondered on knowledge gathering site Quora recently. It didn't take long for the answers to pour in with one resounding theme: "Craigslist has been disrupted, it's just not obvious yet."
The most detailed (and highest-ranked) explanation of this whole phenomenon came from entrepreneur Josh Hannah. He explains that the disruption — or replacement — of Craigslist isn't obvious just yet because it's happening category by category:
- Sites and services like Plenty of Fish, OK Cupid, and JDate are covering most of what users would get out of the Craigslist personals section.
- Gazelle, Etsy, Listia, and others take care of the sale and exchange of products.
- Elance, Simply Hired, and similar hit the job section.
- CouchSurfing, RentHop, and HomeAway take care of housing.
The pattern goes on and on and you can see just how far it goes in the image above. (It was created by blogger Andrew Parker who must've been on the same brainwave as Hannah. Internet speculation kismet, some might say.) Instead of being torn down by one single competitor, Craigslist is gradually being drained of its users by a large group of specialized — and well-developed — services and sites.
The whole process is slow, but it is happening. Statistics show that Craigslist has fewer unique visitors today than it did at this time in 2009:
Does this mean that Craigslist's death is inevitable though? According to Hannah, there's still hope:
I have derived a lot of utility out of Craigslist over the years, and it has all come free, so I am grateful for that. But the site reportedly pulls in more than $100M in revenue a year [...] has only a few dozen employees, continually under-invests in technology and does not innovate. I don't think Craig's a bad guy, but he's harvesting $50M a year into his pockets and not improving the site. In ten years I think Craigslist will be an afterthought, whereas if he reinvested half of those profits into technology and product, it would have a real shot to be a category leader.
Related stories:
- Rival links Craigslist to 12 deaths, 330 crimes in past year
- Craigslist closes all adult services sections
- Village Voice: Craigslist sex trafficking scandal based on bogus stats
Rosa Golijan writes about tech here and there. She's a bit obsessed with Twitter, loves to be liked on Facebook, and browses the Craigslist Missed Connections section for amusement.