Craigslist is Pure Value Added

I’ve been reading a number of stories about Craigslist and how it is sucking money out of newspapers and supposedly hurting investigative journalism. All of these articles share a general fear of Craigslist, and while the reporters focus on the money that newspapers are loosing, they completely miss or ignore the tremendous value that Craigslist adds to the local economies and communities where it exists. In another post, I’ll talk about how Craig and Craigslist are a beneficial forces in the media landscape, but here let me just illustrate the enormous value that the service adds to local economies.

The kind of efficiency that Craigslist creates in the process of finding an an apartment, a job, and many other goods and services is a pure value added to the economy and to people’s lives. The fact that Craigslist provides these services at a low cost or for free just means that even more money stays in the local economies, and in the pockets of Craigslist users.

In the past 5 years, I have been helped enormously by Craigslist, and for all the value that I received from the service I did not pay a dime. My personal experience perfectly illustrates just how much value Craigslist can add to an individuals life and to the lives of millions of other people around the world. It is important to note that the phenomenon of well meaning people providing a valuable service and making some money at the same time is not exclusive to Craigslist. Have you ever checked out Freecycle.org or Idealist.org? There are thousands of Internet services providing listings of one kind or another, which help make our lives just a little bit better.

Newspaper classifieds are dying mostly because they suck and people can’t find what they want. I’ve tried to use the classifieds time and time again, but I’ve never gotten any value from them. Generally, I felt like I was misdirected by the questionable schemes of the advertisers. So, death to classifieds! Good riddance! Either help me live my life or get out of the way.

Here’s my little ode to the new economy, a short review of how Craigslist and other Internet services have helped me live my life.

When I graduated from college and moved to Boston Craigslist was only just beginning to get a foothold, so I used BostonApartments.com to find a place to live. The following year I was going to France and Craigslist directed me to an excellent French tutor. When I moved to San Francisco, admittedly on a bit of a whim, I knew one person had no job and no apartment. Craig had me housed within a week and Berkeley University’s online job board had me a employed soon after. This was 2002 and the economy was terrible, however these computer driven services helped me find a job within two weeks of stepping off the plane.

Bad luck on the San Francisco dating scene push me back to New York City in late 2002 where once again Craigslist found me a great apartment in Queens. While looking for a job I found a guy just down the street, who needed an editor for his literary magazine. We published a couple issues of 24:7 Magazine over the course of the year, and mainly just became great friends. After living in New York for a while, I decided to get some better digs, and Craigslist hooked me up with some nice Greek landlords, who I’m still friends with. Yes, I’m friends with my former landlord! Most recently Craigslist got me a good job with a decent salary.

I really can’t say enough about the Craigslist service. The value that Craigslist has added to my life is mostly incalculable, but if I had to put a figure on it I would say that I’ve gained about $25,000 dollars in the past 5 years from using the service. Multiply this by the 9 million Craigslist users and you get a 225 billion dollar value to local economies around the world over the past 5 years. This might be a little overstated, but whatever the value is, it’s huge. Thanks Craig!