An idea can't "beat" Craigslist. It's the whole of a product and team mixed up with constantly shifting market dynamics and human preferences
Here's an idea that can beat Craigslist: put up billboards all over town, offering $500 per ad to property managers and individual landlords in return for giving your site a 4-week exclusive on those ads.
That's the only way people will stop putting ads on Craigslist first, which in turn will be the only reason people will stop looking there first.
Network effects as powerful as Craigslist's can't be fought with a better product alone, as you point out. (See eBay for another example.) You either have to spend some money to take their market from them, or you have to be there when they fuck up.
And whatever else you can say about Craigslist, they are very, very good at not fucking up.
I agree with that. Their network effects make new entry more difficult. That is a perfectly valid mechanism of a free market, as long as it's based on free exchange (no force).
Here's an idea that can beat Craigslist: put up billboards all over town, offering $500 per ad to property managers and individual landlords in return for giving your site a 4-week exclusive on those ads.
That's the only way people will stop putting ads on Craigslist first, which in turn will be the only reason people will stop looking there first.
Network effects as powerful as Craigslist's can't be fought with a better product alone, as you point out. (See eBay for another example.) You either have to spend some money to take their market from them, or you have to be there when they fuck up.
And whatever else you can say about Craigslist, they are very, very good at not fucking up.