No need to reinvent the wheel. This chart, by Spark Capital's Andrew Parker, shows the huge number of fast-growing, successful e-commerce startups that have emerged from mimicking the various functions of Craigslist:
As Alyson Shontell at Business Insider notes, a number of these firms are worth billions. Airbnb is estimated to be worth $10 billion. Indeed was acquired for around $1 billion. Etsy has a $1 billion valuation.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
What those firms have done is provide interfaces, apps, and matching and dispute resolution services that differentiate it from Craigslist and help it build a customer base. For example, Airbnb has built its business on attractive photos of the rentals available on the site, and on its dispute resolution and customer service. That's the challenging part of building a successful startup.
But for potential entrepreneurs unsure of what kind of service they want to build, Craigslist seems like a great place to start looking.
-
Environment breakthroughs of 2025In Depth Progress was made this year on carbon dioxide tracking, food waste upcycling, sodium batteries, microplastic monitoring and green concrete
-
The biggest astronomy stories of 2025In the spotlight From moons, to comets, to pop stars in orbit
-
The 8 best comedy movies of 2025the week recommends Filmmakers find laughs in both familiar set-ups and hopeless places
-
TikTok secures deal to remain in USSpeed Read ByteDance will form a US version of the popular video-sharing platform
-
Unemployment rate ticks up amid fall job lossesSpeed Read Data released by the Commerce Department indicates ‘one of the weakest American labor markets in years’
-
US mints final penny after 232-year runSpeed Read Production of the one-cent coin has ended
-
Warner Bros. explores sale amid Paramount bidsSpeed Read The media giant, home to HBO and DC Studios, has received interest from multiple buying parties
-
Gold tops $4K per ounce, signaling financial uneaseSpeed Read Investors are worried about President Donald Trump’s trade war
-
Electronic Arts to go private in record $55B dealspeed read The video game giant is behind ‘The Sims’ and ‘Madden NFL’
-
New York court tosses Trump's $500M fraud fineSpeed Read A divided appeals court threw out a hefty penalty against President Trump for fraudulently inflating his wealth
-
Trump said to seek government stake in IntelSpeed Read The president and Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan reportedly discussed the proposal at a recent meeting
