97 of Top 100 Classified Sites Are Craigslist 193
According to a recent report, 97 of the top 100 classified sites are just localized versions of Craigslist, up from 88 just last year. Combine that with a massive rise in traffic to classified sites in general and you have a recipe for one raging behemoth. "Craigslist isn't just crushing the newspaper industry and crowding out other classified sites. It's also taking an increasing slice of total U.S Internet traffic: the site's market share in February was up 90% year over year, accounting for about 2.5% of total US Web site visits."
Classifieds Traffic Up Since Recession (Score:5, Interesting)
The news is that they think the recession is causing this thrift explosion. From the article:
So it seems the recession is more or less rescuing some classifieds sites while acting as a rocket booster for Craigslist. This meshes well with last week's info about Craigslist replacing MySpace as the top U.S. search term.
And from Hitwise's blog:
Market share of US Internet Visits increased 90% to the Craigslist Cities custom category year over year in February 2009 while visits to All Other Classifieds grew 22%.Visits to All Other Classifieds had been declining for most of 2008 with visits starting to increase in January and February. This suggests that the worsening US economy may be boosting visits to classifieds websites, and contributing to the recent up tick in visits to both Craigslist Cities and All Other Classifieds.
I'm not sold on their evidence. I don't see a huge jump [google.com] since February of '08 in search popularity. Why do we do this with percentages? We break them down into categories and play the telephone game to distort them for the sole purpose of shock-and-awe reporting leading to ad revenue?
Classified? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Classifieds Traffic Up Since Recession (Score:3, Interesting)
But later in that same article:
Exactly how do they "anonymously capture" data and determine an average household income?
Re:Finally indexed (Score:2, Interesting)
I may be off here, but part of the reason of the reason Craigslist may be gaining popularity is because its listings are finally well indexed by search engines, where as of a year or so ago, they weren't [searchenginejournal.com]- now when I search for an item or service, Craigslist actually shows up in the relevant hits! The more users who see Craigslist in google results, the more likely they maybe are to list with it.
Sorry - SearchEngineJournal.com link here [searchenginejournal.com]
Re:Classifieds Traffic Up Since Recession (Score:5, Interesting)
Did anyone else notice the largest drop on that graph occurred right after this article -
Craigslist to crack down on prostitution ads [whdh.com]
Re:Mostly unrelated.. but No Banners/Web Advertism (Score:4, Interesting)
Well maybe,just maybe, that's the very reason that they're so popular! They give users what they want, not what someone in marketing/advertising thinks users ought to want, or what will give them a few more ad dollars but drive users off. They're old cliches but it seems silly to argue with success or fix what's not broken.
I'm going to make a very broad statement here: the most successful parts of the internet give users content, not advertising. Advertising revenue is a byproduct and it's a mistake to make it the priority as many sites have done, all the while arguing of course that they haven't.
Re:In other news: (Score:5, Interesting)
Yeah and this is the problem as I see it.
Craigslist made the economics of prostitution more decentralized so cops were busting fewer hookers even though the sex industry in a lot of towns was thriving with Craigslist. So the cops started to take notice when their revenue dropped off. In some towns over 50% of the revenue comes from fines levied against the citizens for non-violent crimes and anything that disrupts that will make politicians poke their local county sheriffs and police departments to do something about it. Look at your county coffers and see how much comes in from traffic tickets and criminal fines for my county it is nearly 30% of the revenue. Making so much of county and city budgets dependent on vice and traffic crimes has made it profitable to exacerbate problems that will encourage it while not directly encouraging it. -- See drug war, cheap alcohol and 1 second yellow lights.
We also had a massive decrease in violence against prostitutes and charges filed for pimping because craigslist made it far easier to go solo and be safe from crazies by filtering out them by email and phone before meeting. Sort of like speed dating, now these women are back out working for pimps and working the streets. This sort of action by the police community against sex workers is abhorrent and is bringing back old problems that were going away with Craigslist being used by escorts.
Re:Good Game, "old media", it was mediocre... (Score:3, Interesting)
Gumtree is a lot more popular than Craigslist in Britain.
I guess it is the network effect again. Gumtree has a lot more British ads, so more Brits visit it. People put their ads their because more people see them.
Newspapers only have themselves to blame (Score:3, Interesting)
Rather than making themselves community sites to attract the eyeballs that would generate revenue, so many online sites treat the internet like a cash register. On-line advertisements should have been as dirt cheap (or free) as Craigslist since printing costs don't warrant what most charge for on-line ads.
Also, so many on-line newspapers haven't figured out how to create a good front page. Check out my home paper's site [kcstar.com]. You're bombarded by so much data and links that you simply can't take in everything you're seeing (thus you ignore most of it).
Newspapers just failed to figure out the internet which is why so many are disappearing.
Re:Craigslist has a HUGE amount of scams. (Score:3, Interesting)
Last time I made one they took the money out of my account, then handed me the cheque. I no longer had the money, I had a note guaranteed by the bank. I could hand this to someone else and they would get the money from the bank, not from me.
Does anyone know if NZ banks have this issue?
Re:How many are scammers? (Score:3, Interesting)
I never had a bad experience (Score:4, Interesting)
I never had a bad experience buying from Craigslist. At first, I wasn't very sure about sending sellers emails using my personal email, but to this day, I have not had any massive spam increases (gmail filters them out anyway), nor any crazy stalkers bothering me. I've furnished my entire studio with craigslist, for about maybe $400 and that's because I decided to spend a little money. For that I got:
a. a super heavy and sturdy office desk with 3 drawers. It supports 2 21" CRT monitors and computer and receiver. Looks like it could take a lot more too. The seller offered to help me assemble it for free, which I took on his offer but decided to give him $10 extra for it. Total cost: $60.
b. a recliner. I was looking for a recliner to put my feet up. All recliners I saw for new were like lazyboy ugly craps, or some designer stuff that costs about $900 at least. I found an old school leather recliner for $30.
c. a dinner room table with 2 chairs. Fits my space perfectly. Cost $50.
d. a bed side table with 3 drawers. Nice looking dark wood and not some assemble it crap. Cost: $90?
e. two designer lamps. I springed for these and paid I think $200. These were brand new.
I also purchased:
a. 21" sweet CRT monitor for $10.
b. a nice road bike that fits me well for $600. The seller was really cool and gave me a whole bunch of stuff for free and even gave me some technical support after.
c. old clicky keyboard. New would've cost $85 but I got this one for $25. Turned out I couldn't use it and so I returned it. The seller gladly refunded my money.
d. nikon lenses.
I sold some computer memory through it and some other stuff. But generally I buy more than sell.
Some things I wouldn't use craigslist for:
1. personals. They are interesting/voyeuristic to browse, but you never know who is on the other side.
2. cars. too expensive to bring cash. I watched on this tv show this murder happened because the seller knew the buyer was going to bring lots of cash so they arranged to meet at a secluded place and murdered the buyer.
Some tips:
1. You know what they say: if it's too good, it probably is.
2. Don't meet at a deserted place late at night. Meet at a place that you are comfortable with and with lots of people around.
3. Don't give out personal information, ever.
Craigslist is also more useful in larger metropolitan areas. I used to live in a small town and hardly used it. But now I live in a larger city I use it a lot.
Craigslist + RSS is also a major win.
Re:Classifieds Traffic Up Since Recession (Score:5, Interesting)
Maybe they like being ripped off in the US or something. It seems to me using a system like that you might as well set fire to your money
you don't get it.
Craigslist isn't a place to buy stuff. It's a place to FIND stuff. You don't trust the #@$#!ing craigslist ad; you make a contact with a real person, and go from there.
ebay's kinda a joke --> used electronics, scams, and crap, all peddled by folks who only care about thin numbers that give themselves a veneer of respectability.
Craigslist tosses that, and the fees, and just connects the buyers and the sellers. It's the internet in its purest, and most open, form.
Re:Classifieds Traffic Up Since Recession (Score:4, Interesting)
Unfortunately, on London craigslist at least, you are more likely to get responses from Africa trying to scam you than real responses to your ad. From a recent ad I got three responses from Abuja, Nigeria (according to IP), and none from genuine buyers, in spite of an instruction saying 'local buyers only' and requiring pickup.
This sort of site requires a critical mass of genuine people to be using it, and in certain places a lot of the traffic is probably caused more by scams than real items for sale. As you say, it's the internet it its purest, most open, form, and like email and web discussions, it's been taken over by scammers, spammers and blow-hards.