More thoughts on Bluesky & business models.

Ernie Smith

More thoughts on Bluesky & business models. We need social networks with business models akin to Craigslist, where money is intentionally left on the table.

Obviously some broader fediverse lessons to take from this as well.

What Bluesky’s Business Model Could Learn From Craigslist

More thoughts on what Bluesky’s ultimate business model could look like: A modern take on Craigslist, a company that never exploited its users.

Tedium: The Dull Side of the Internet. (tedium.co)

new @tedium

Shannon Clark

@ernie @tedium Craigslist is worth studying and copying - look at this page that is, basically, the only things Craigslist charges for:

craigslist | about | help | posting fees

(www.craigslist.org)

(the entire contents would fit into a small post here)

And from all of those $3-$75 fees Craigslist is estimated to make $600M/year (down from a peak of $1B)

Ernie Smith

@Rycaut @tedium To some degree they are in the position they’re in because they were a first mover. But at the same time, with enough scale, they can make a model that simple work extremely well for them because it doesn’t complicate the transaction and they have enough scale to make it all work.

Shannon Clark

@ernie @tedium it takes a lot of restraint (helped I'm sure by not having lots of outside investors) to not have gone down lots of other paths and to keep their business model that streamlined and simple.

But also their "scale" is still pretty mind-blowing (1B+ page views a day) - so while their interface is seemingly simple and little changed - I suspect their backend is pretty exceptional to manage that scale (and hide the complexity that comes with it)