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WSJ on CraigsList and Zen of Classified Ads
prostoalex writes "Wall Street Journal profiles one of the Valley's most mysterious and secretive Web companies. A leader in online classifieds space and by some measures one of Web's top sites, CraigsList is ostensibly anti-ad and anti-self-promotion. From the article: "One industry analyst has estimated that Craigslist could generate 20 times that $25 million just by posting a couple of ads on each of its pages. If the estimate is to be believed, that's half a billion dollars a year being left on the table. What kind of company turns up its nose at $500 million?""
You misunderstand. They're not turning down money by not charging for user ads. They're turning down money by not putting ads on their website.
You want the truthiness? You can't handle the truthiness!
One that isn't just in it for the money. They are in it to preform a service and have a belief about how that service should be provided. IE, not bugging the @#$%@#$^% out of your costomers to the point where they go to some other site and spend their money. Or they stop coming to your site because it's hard to navigate. Or......
The list can go on and on. I for one applaud craigslist, and the fact that they DON'T advertise on their site is the reason I use it more than just about any other site.