Everyone knows (don’t they?) that Craigslist is winning the online classifieds battle. In various US cities and overseas (including our own Melbourne and Sydney) Craigslist is impacting on newspaper classified advertising. In San Francisco, according to industry watcher, Classified Intelligence, Craigslist has taken millions in revenue from the Chronicle.
The Tribune Company, publisher of several major US city dailies, created recycler.com to compete with Craigslist and similar community sites. Tribune yesterday announced that recycler.com is expanding to 12 cities.
This expansion is interesting because for those interested in how a well established business with a commercial model responds to an upstart with a less commercial yet highly successful model.
It’s worth checking out the two offerings. You will soon see why consumers like Craigslist. Besides NO FEE, it offers faster ad placement and easier navigation. Also, Craigslist offers a sense of community as opposed to a pure commercial play.