The process would then involve calling a phone number or visiting a house address to go purchase the car. Buying from print classifieds was always a slow and tedious transaction and it was just a matter of time before someone would reinvent the market.
In , Ebay and Craigslist created innovative products that would change the internet forever- online classifieds. However, due to its simplistic and non-commercial approach to private buying and selling, the website attracted 1 million site visits a month by The website has maintained the right for regular users to post their items for free but as the company continued to expand, fees were introduced to cover the costs of a business license.
The founder, Newmark, insisted that the website would not include banner ads and Google pop-ups to keep the customer experience in tact. Craigslist receives over 50 billion monthly page views and is one of the most popular websites online, spanning across 70 countries using over local sites. Craigslist was created with the basic buy and sell concept; users pay the price that is listed.
In September , Pierre Omidyar decided to create an auction approach to online Classifieds. Users fell in love with the idea of bargain hunting and selling their unwanted items for more than expected. When these new websites were created, newspapers were surely expecting to take a hit of some sort, but no one could predict how damaging Craigslist, Ebay and other classifieds websites could be to their success.
Although these statistics sound damaging, another perspective would be that Craigslist has saved the American public billions of dollars over the years. The emergence of the digital age punished newspapers for a dated business model and has forced them to adjust their strategy. However, newspaper classifieds are not dead because it is hard to compete with the security and trustworthiness of having a 3rd party look over private transactions. Fraudulent postings were rare through newspapers but due to the anonymous and fast paced process of Craigslist and Ebay, this is now a serious issue.
