Craigslist: mess or not, it's successful

[charmian]

I don't buy very many things online (most of the things I buy are perishable), so I've never used Craigslist; therefore, I cannot evaluate the thesis of the article re: the mess of Craiglist design very well. However, if the design and other things are so bad, just why is it that Craigslist continues to dominate the market? Is it only that they're 100% free (except for certain listings in certain areas)? However, I'm sure that other companies are trying the freebie approach as well (after all, look at twitter and all the other companies who seem to have no idea how they'll make money). Also, how is it that Craigslist is so successful with "backward" tech?

Comments

[lennan]

My guess would be because people, no matter how much they like gadgets, still want something that they can navigate with minimal search and click. Plus it looks exactly like newspaper job listings, which most people are familiar with. I think the guy just took something he saw people use all the time in newspapers and went from there. Plus, especially in the case of looking for jobs, Craigslist consumers get, on average, a lot less applications than in places like monster. Or so I've been told by the HR of my company. But those are just my uneducated observations.