May 11th, 2007
Facebook Classified Ad Offering Deals Another Blow To Newspapers
It’s sure rough trying to charge for a service that other businesses are offering for free. Just ask any newspaper exec. With 20/20 hindsight, it seems inevitable that the web would be the perfect platform for free classified ads, but no newspaper exec in their worst nightmare could have imagined Craiglist, which has done huge damage to newspapers’ classified ad business. Now there’s a new disruptor in the classified ad market — Facebook.
Again with perfect hindsight it seems inevitable that Facebook would offer free classified ads, given the huge advantage that the closed network offers to establishing trust between prospective buyers and sellers. Ebay demonstrated long ago how important trust is to online transactions. Facebook users can post classified ads to their trusted networks based on friends or affiliations, most notably schools, but increasingly companies and other groups as well.
Imagine the impact this could have on housing ads, such as searching for a roommate. Neither Craigslist nor newspapers can compete with prospective roommates being able to size each other up based on their Facebook profiles.
Facebook could also achieve a Google-like disruption by offering the ads for free to increase Facebook usage and monetizing that usage in other ways. According to Facebook’s Zuckerberg:
“We don’t try to lock people up or take more of their time, but we try to provide them with easier ways to do the things they want to do on the Internet,†said Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder, who noted that more than 60 percent of the site’s active users log in each day. “If we can provide people with efficient tools, they will use the site more.â€
It also seems inevitable now that social networks are the perfect platform for all online transactions that involved connecting individuals, and even transactions that involve connecting companies.
If I were a newspaper exec, I’d thinking long and hard about how to create a social network around the one element that newspapers still have claim to — locality. People who live in a city or town have an instant connection. Newspapers should focus on how the help people in their communities leverage that connection.
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[…] Publishing 2.0 (who is also clearly a fan of the Cutline theme for Wordpress, as I am) says this is another blow for newspapers, and he’s right of course — although they have taken so many body blows in the […]
[…] Host everyone. Leverage your expertise in connecting facts and framing stories. Scott Karp is clearly thinking along these lines: If I were a newspaper exec, I’d thinking long and hard about how to create a social network […]
Thanks Scott - this is incredible - I can’t think of a more intelligent move for Facebook.
And I’m looking forward to using the service. Facebook is already killing MySpace with its vastly improved architecture. Craigslist suffers from many of the same pitfalls - poor design, a lack of trust.
[…] into a competitor to other web-based free classified services such as Craigslist. However, as Scott Karp rightly points out, closed social networks, like Facebook, have a real advantage when delivering certain kinds of […]
[…] Publishing 2.0 Scott Karp also describes Facebook as a new disruptor in the classified ad market: “Imagine […]
Scott Karp
Facebook Classified Ad Offering Deals Another Blow To Newspapers — It’s sure rough trying to charge for a service that other businesses are offering for free. Just ask any newspaper exec. With 20/20 hindsight, it seems inevitable that the web would be the perfect platform for free classified ads
“one element that newspapers still have claim to — locality”
You’re right. Locality is a huge deal. I think every newspaper should start it’s own free inclusion Yellow Pages, then charge for classified ads from businesses looking to sell an item or service, promote an event, or hire someone.
Now here’s what interesting about Facebook that newspapers should learn from. Zuckerberg did not have the new service built in-house. Instead Oodle white labeled it for Facebook.
Newspapers need to start partnering with these small companies and integrate their services into their sites.
10:30 AM [IMG] Scott Karp / Publishing 2.0: Facebook Classified Ad Offering Deals Another Blow To Newspapers
Facebook Classified Ad Offering Deals Another Blow To Newspapers — It’s sure rough trying to charge for a service that other businesses are offering for free. Just ask any newspaper exec. With 20/20 hindsight, it seems inevitable that the web would be the perfect platform for free classified ads
Actually, the Marketplace feature was built in-house at Facebook. The Oodle sponsored group is totally separate and unrelated.
This ‘network’ angle gives Facebook a huge competitive advantage over newspapers and other online classified sites, notably Craigslist, that don’t have social filters for ads. Writes Scott Karp at Publishing 2.0, ” Neither Craigslist nor newspapers can compete with prospective roommates being able to size each other up based on their Facebook profiles. Facebook could achieve a Google-like disruption by offering the ads for free to increase Facebook usage
Facebook Classified Ad Offering Deals Another Blow To Newspapers
And the recruitment business that Facebook is finally getting seriously engaged in (as opposed to linking out to Jobthing) threatens another key newspaper revenue stream. It’ll be interesting to see if Google’s experience with Belgian newspapers will start to be replicated as, over a period of years, Facebook et al continue to hoover up fairly static streams of business.
[…] Facebook Classified Ad Offering Deals Another Blow To Newspapers » Publishing 2.0 If I were a newspaper exec, I’d thinking long and hard about how to create a social network around the one element that newspapers still have claim to — locality. People who live in a city or town have an instant connection. Newspapers should focus on (tags: newspapers classified adertising media publishing community social_networking facebook) […]
[…] Facebook Classified Ad Offering Deals Another Blow To Newspapers. I disagree with Scott Karp that Facebook classifieds are a blow to newspapers, primarily because the typical Facebook users are not likely to be prime buyers of newspaper ads to begin with. But I do agree with his conclusion that its past time for newspapers to jump into the social forum/website area and start building communities of their own. […]
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Facebook Classified Ad Offering Deals Another Blow To Newspapers
Surely the ultimate nightmare for newspapering is when, not if, an enterprise model makes it feasible to offer DISPLAY ADS, free to anyone who wants to place the ad.
This is doable right now.
The issue (to me at least) is not how to do it; that has been solved. It is getting people to understand and appreciate the sheer doable-ness of local…that’s right…local enterprises tied together in a huge network that offers completely free display ads to local merchants, not unlike the free weeklies that have emerged in the past two decades.
This drives the last nail into the coffin of the localpapers.
I have been thinking about offering, say, a $1000.00 reward to anyone who can prove that it can’t be done. I of course CAN objectively prove with dollar and sense figures that it’s doable - and profitable.
A nice terrain upon which to be thriving.
[…] Facebook Classified Ad Offering Deals Another Blow To Newspapers » Publishing 2.0 “Imagine the impact this could have on housing ads, such as searching for a roommate. Neither Craigslist nor newspapers can compete with prospective roommates being able to size each other up based on their Facebook profiles.” (tags: internet advertising classifieds socialmedia socialnetworking newspapers free facebook) […]
[…] Karp talks about Facebook’s addition of classified ads to their website. The two key components of this […]
Scott Karp talks about Facebook’s addition of classified ads to their website. The two key components of this are: Social networks like Facebook offer a trusted network within their communities. Users can check out each others’ profiles, in order to strengthen trust and connection.
[…] social network launched a branded classifieds section using technology from Oodle. This is an excellent strategic move, and […]
[…] for facing more competition from free services than any other in the history of paid services. Faceboook recently piled on to the Craigslist disruption of the newspaper classified market with a free classifieds […]
[…] for facing more competition from free services than any other in the history of paid services. Faceboook recently piled on to the Craigslist disruption of the newspaper classified market with a free classifieds […]
Facing even more competition are Classifieds under Web 2.0 banner. It’ll be interesting to see how it pans out
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