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Comment by djyaz1200 | Hacker News Reader

Die Craigslist, Die!

For any competitor to even make a dent in Craigslist they'd need to expand well beyond SF. Almost three years, and what markets is FOBO in? When you install the app, you get a modal that says "Available Only in San Francisco". It apparently uses geolocation: I can't even look at the app if I'm not in SF.

Also, they need to expand well beyond consumer electronics: on CL I've bought furniture, cars, found freelance work, searched for office space, searched for a home to lease, and more.

FOBO could "win" 100% of personal consumer electronics sales in SF and it's probably would have no effect on CL.

But driving in a thin wedge first is a great way to tackle a monster and they've started very smartly. They can either expand or others will follow suit in other categories.

If I'm remembering well, craigslist started as very very local. And then expanded city by city.

I mean, it's time. Right?! I am tempted to lock myself in a room for 3 months and just invent a half decent UI for them as a gift to humanity. Their interface says F off humanity. I'm not even good at UI design, not even a little... but I could still do them a service. Or they could just keep suing people?! Why don't they just provide an API and charge for it? They'd make billions and I wouldn't have to feel like my eyeballs got raped every time I need to post/view something.

It apparently uses geolocation: I can't even look at the app if I'm not in SF.

I tried it when I landed at SFO on my last trip to SF. It gave me the same message there, even after I quit and restarted the app. (Google Maps was reporting my correct location, so it wasn't my GPS being funny.)

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