A few years ago with Craigslist.org gutting every city newspaper’s classified ad section with its free ads, the writing was on the wall for newsprint: down and out in “know” time. Everybody knew that Web Triumphant would prevail. Well not so fast:
This the latest of about 3-5 rejections per week I get from the good people at Craigslist.org (see for yourself the above rejected article that was too sensitive for Craigslist’s political tastes here). And Kijiji is no better – in fact I have completely given up on Kijijian classified ad services. Suddenly the newspapers, Autotraders, and specialty publications are starting to look pretty good. And they have the advantage of offering clients three choices – will that be print or Web or both. And their prices have declined here such that these services have become attractive – no hassles for a small fee. The whole market for Web Classifieds is now back up for grabs. Say thanks to Craigslist.org and Kijiji.com for their arbitrary decisions(if you can understand how their terms of service were applied on your latest rejection notice – then you deserve the Legalese Olympic Gold medal). Of course, their either crude or mannered, but form-letter rudeness just adds to the opportunity – and it appears that Facebook and Myspace may be taking advantage of the knockings. But I suspect the market is huge and an astute player or two will seize the day with an innovative offering.