Ebay Raises Barrier-to-Entry on LOCAL, Ebay tries 25% investment in Craigslist Options

[Critter]

Ebay.com and Craigslist.com have announced that Ebay has purchased a 25% stake in Craigslist.

Why exactly does Ebay need a Craiglist? I submit to you that it doesn't. Ebay, or anyone else, can pop up a Craiglist website in about 30 minutes.

I suppose there will always be certain things with MASS appeal that can best be sold/marketed on MASS oriented websites and through TV Ads. However, I think the number of things that can be mass marketed in a "one pitch fits all" kind of way will continue to shrink. AND, I think Ebay's investment in Craigslist is merely an effort by Ebay to mount a defense against Yahoo, Google, Me and everybody and his brother slicing off LOCAL MARKETS from Ebay.com.

With Craigslist's success in San Francisco, Ebay had to see that, while it still had the MASS, any clown could just slice off a city and run with it. Craigslist understood San Franciso better than Ebay and was able to slice off San Franciso not only from Ebay, but also from other MASS oriented websites like monster.com and hotjobs.com.

But, I submit to you that Craiglist doesn't really know diick about New York City (I fully intend to slice off New York City from the MASS oriented websites and run with it).

I also fail to see how a strategy that worked in a San Francisco stands a snow ball's chance in hell of working in a Washington DC (a city that is 80% Black).

One of the really great examples of doing a local niche right was/is Zagat's Restaurant Guide. Pardon my french, but isn't local.yahoo.com essentially a real-time Zagat for every locality (not only for restaurants but for everything you can think of)?

With the big boys and the little boys all looking to go local, it was/is only a matter of time before someone else slices off some city from Ebay; and then someone else slices off another city and on and on until there is really no need for Ebay.com. Ebay's interest in Craiglist, IMHO, is merely an effort to create a larger "barrier to entry" for every Tom, Diick and Harry who is thinking maybe about slicing off an "Ebay City" for himself.

Ebay's message is: "You better think twice about trying to slice off New York City from us because Craigslist is already in New York City and it now has our muscle behind it".

Unfortunately, (as I said) I don't think Craig knows enough about how New York City works to hold on to New York City. But hey, Ebay can buy my Black Aass for the right price. I never claimed NOT to be a Ho.

see also: I Am The Anti-Craig at http://www.tempcity.com/dramanyc/index.php?showtopic=3142