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Ask HN: Why Does Craigslist Have No Official Mobile Apps?

1 points by amac ↗ HN
It's reasonably beyond doubt that mobile is where most people will access information online - including classifieds. I understand Craigslist was founded on the desktop web however my question is; why do they still not have a native app for mobile? Is this due to resource, or perhaps a business or philosophical choice?

Ebay appear to have revived their marketplace businesses with Ebay.com, Gumtree etc on mobile. Personally in regards to ecommerce, I much prefer mobile to the desktop experience.

6 comments

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nodata
Does their website work well in a mobile browser?
sfall
it does have a basic mobile site that has the same functionality as the main site
amac
Sure, I guess it does work but from a distribution perspective, they could probably reach a larger audience with apps (The UI could also be improved but that's another debate).

You could argue their current approach works for their mission - though not consumers.

[deleted]
(comment deleted)
thelogos
Maybe for the same reason HN does not have an API and developers are forced to scrape the site.
serf
I don't know why, and the third party apps (at least the Android ones) have a track record of shady doings (revoking upgrades, creating new "premium" editions atop existing ones to force repayment, etc)

I always figured it was due to the site being simple enough to make work well on mobile.