The Washington Post reports that Craigslist, the free online classifieds website, has started asking for fees to cut down on posts to one of its more heavily-trafficked pages:
This week, it’s New York City apartment brokers who are being told that a listing fee is on its way. Later this year, Washington area employers may be asked to cough up some money for an ad on the region’s job listings page.It’s an out-of-character move for the site, which is best known for allowing users to post their ads free of charge. But it’s the users who begged the site operators to do something about the number of repeat listings on the site.
Starting March 1, a $10 fee will be imposed for listings in New York with hopes of deterring the brokers who list the same apartment several times in a single day, Craigslist Inc. chief executive Jim Buckmaster said. There are no plans to impose fees for real estate listings in other cities.
In the highly charged, competitive real estate market of New York, the site has become a victim of its own success. Its simple interface gives the newest listings the most prominent spot, prompting some brokers to re-post the same listings several times a day to ensure that theirs were the first ones that home-seekers encounter.
As a result, the site gets 600,000 listings for real estate in New York per month; by instituting a fee, Craigslist hopes to cut that number by 90 percent.
This is a good lesson for state regulators (and their advocates) who have popularized the notion that “consumer welfare” is directly related to lower prices. For example, in antitrust regulation it is accepted on faith that a small price increase following a merger of two former competitors inevitably “injures” consumers. Similarly, it is believed that there are no negative consequences for consumers as a result of lower prices.
{ 2 comments }
Perfectly rational, if one accepts the axiom that without some stake in the success/failure of an enterprise, people will generally abuse it to their own personal and short-term gain.
So Craigslist is the latest victim in the “projects” style of abuse. How marvelous that Craigslist has the foresight to make a small, yet vital change.
$10 is still far less than Yahoo charges. Does Ebay list apartments? Oh, I like that idea! Especially in a market as perpetually hot as NYC.
This new site is pretty much just like craigslist but no personal ads and anyone can create their own classifieds (based on zip codes) for their specific community.
Not much there now but it could work.
http://www.northboard.net
Comments on this entry are closed.