Assignment 2-1: Craigslist

The Internet site, Craigslist, is a pop culture topic that I am very interested in. Craigslist is a website that allows people to sell or buy items, or find activities, real estate, jobs, companions, and much more. Craigslist has an individual site for each city to make it easier to find whatever you want or need. I prefer Craigslist to eBay because it offers so many different services. It is also comforting to know that you are dealing with people from the same city, so you can always pay with or accept cash for any items bought or sold, which reduces the likelihood of being scammed.

According to Catherine Holahan, 2007, author of “eBay takes on Craigslist,” eBay has opened a site to rival Craigslist, called Kijiji.com. Kijiji is starting as a free listing site to compete with Craigslist, but according to Holahan, they will eventually charge for listings, making it very difficult to rival Craigslist (p. 27). This means that Craigslist is taking over the classifieds market and will be difficult to stop. In fact, Jessi Hempel, 2007, author of “Craigslist’s Ongoing Success Story,” says that “the site took in $25 million in revenues last year, but it's clear that that the site could be worth more--very much more” (p. 18).

Craigslist has become a huge hit for those wanting the convenience of classified ads without being charged a fee. Hempel, 2007, explains the popularity of Craigslist with the following statistics: “it serves classified ads to 450 cities. The site receives more than 750,000 job listings a month, and users self-publish about 14 million new classifieds a month” (p. 18). Craigslist has taken over the world of online classifieds. They have a very faithful user base that only keeps growing.


References

Hempel, J. (2007). Craigslist ongoing success story. Business Week Online, 18. Retrieved November 11, 2007, from http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/may2007/id20070515_301894.htm?chan=search.

Holahan, C. (2007). EBay takes on Craigslist. Business Week Online, 27. Retrieved November 11, 2007, from http://0-web.ebscohost.com.olinkserver.franklin.edu:80/ehost/detail?vid=4&hid=8&sid=cf0303e4-b7e6-456b-8cae-342b276fc3a6%40SRCSM2.