HN Explorer

Ask HN: Competing with eBay and Craigslist?

6 points by ft_ ↗ HN
I want to build a new marketplace which is like a combination of eBay and craigslist.

Here's why: - Everything on craigslist is anonymous which makes it difficult to trust the person that you're buying from. plus by removing anonymity it makes it easier to fight spam. (and a lot of other issues regarding user experience, etc.) For example, I believe a real time messaging system would really improve the way people use it and make it more like a real marketplace.

- I also think there are some innovation still left in the auctions. it might be a good idea to have a central auction system and build apps based on it for different kinds of categories, so you have different and adapted UI for different categories. Also, it might be possible to make it free for buyers and sellers (without taking any cut from them like eBay) and use some ads that don't clutter the website.

I realize that it's probably impossible to compete with these 2 companies given the network effects and competing with them isn't justified by some extra features.

So I'm wondering if you have any suggestions to give me ? Do you think it's worth doing this project ?

On a side note, let's say you were to build something similar, which kind of technology would you use ? Would you consider Scala/Play or C#/MVC ?

Thanks.

11 comments

[ 4.3 ms ] story [ 45.4 ms ] thread
anigbrowl
It's possible to compete, but to quote Ben Horowitz, you need to be not just better, but many times better, to avoid the inertia of people using the status quo. To that end, I suggest you consider going the Etsy route and catering to a specialist market, building your product out, and then expanding. Taking on eBay in a frontal attack is doomed to failure.

I like the messaging idea - build that into your support side as well, possibly by crowdsourcing and rewarding loyal users. And I also like the ability to flag on craigslist which is seriously missing on EBay. User-driven tagging would be a boon; I trade synthesizers/audio gear fairly frequently on EBay and nothing is more irritating that searching for a synth and getting pages of accessories that mention that device in the headline or text. I loathe and despise seller spam.

Tech stack, I have no ideas.

ft_
> User-driven tagging would be a boon

You're right, it would really help with the spam and making sure that you find the right product easily.

klondike-5-3226
shameless plug to my own version that I made. I tried to add some innovation to the auction process and a few other things. www.tradespring.net. You can read more on the about page. Btw, if you are looking for a niche market, I suggest coin trading/collection. There are no real good solutions for them out there, although the were reluctant every time I tried to pitch tradespring
27182818284
The Internet graveyard is full of the bodies of people making "Craigslist killers." I'd really like to see one, but it is a much harder task than it seems
ft_
Very true. Actually, I've been trying to do a "craigslist killer" for quite sometime now.

Everyone complains about cl, but it seems like people don't really like other alternatives that pop-up (most probably because of the lack of sellers and buyers...)

27182818284
Right. Craigslist has incredible inertia. The only thing I've seen comparable to it is homegrown. I've noticed in small towns, people will make organic garage-sale Facebook pages where people of the town utilize heavily and post a lot. That's the closest I've seen, because the other tools, although more advance, never beat the chicken-egg problem.
ig1
I'm not convinced there's a real problem that you're trying to solve here. What's an example of something you were going to buy on Craigslist but didn't because of trust issues ?

A substantial part of the second-hand car market is done via anonymous classified, and they're probably the highest ticket item regularly sold on classifieds.

The next tier down is probably electronics, bikes, etc. where a substantial part of the market is stolen goods, where for obvious reasons the sellers aren't going to want identification.

ft_
I bought 2 phones on craigslist and both were stolen, so I wasnt able to activate them with the carrier. This is why I thought it might be better to remove the anonymity (it will probably be a lot easier now that people are used to giving their real names online...)

But if a substantial part of the market is stolen goods, than yeah there's no point because nobody would use it.

ig1
Generally for electronics people ask to see them working before they purchase them, I guess it varies by where your based but you couldn't you just stick in a sim to test it before purchase ?
will_brown
For what it is worth I always had some thoughts on combining eBay (community driven consumer to consumer framework) with craigslist (emphasis on the "barter" section) with a little old school amazon vibe (focus on books, movies, music, ect...)

1. A user would create an account and register Book "A" and identify what they are willing to trade for, say, Book "B" or Movie "A".

2. Obviously, users could barter directly among themselves Book "A" for Book "B". However, with a large enough community you could have algorithms suggest trades on mass scale - now it is no longer User A trades Book "A" with User B who has Book "B", but now User A can get Book "C" from User C and User C can get Book "B" from User B and User B can get Book "A" from A. The algorithm might conduct these large trades weekly or monthly.

3. What if User "A" does not send Book "A"? The ebay like community will encourage feed back and member rankings - allowing you to create settings to only accept trades from people with "X" ranking. Or in the short term - have members put in a $10-$20 deposit that will be forfeited any user that does not receive the trade.

ag_47
My very first personal "venture" was a craigslist killer, back in 1st year of University. I hated how crappy craigslist looked and was convinced I could outdo them. I later found 100s of classified ads websites.. needless to say my attempt failed as well.

PS. if you do are looking for a real time messaging system, I would be able to help with that.