Startup Addict Musings

Every morning I wake up and have less hair because my programmers continue to mull over bug revisions and a feature called Marketplace. The most difficult pill to swallow beside being two-weeks over due on official launch is watching Facebook reveal a feature we’ve been developing in private beta. Marketplace for Facebook acts like a classified ad section with a few bucket categories users can post. The time to market for a bootstrapper like myself verse a well funded machine like Facebook is evident between this David and Goliath scenario.

Luckily Startup Addict is a social network targeted at a vertical for entrepreneurs, investors and anyone in the startup value chain allowing Marketplace to be specifically geared to buying and selling startups, blogs, web 2.0 properties and brick & mortar businesses.

Now that I’ve clarified the differences let me step off my soap-box and finish disclosing the implications of Facebook’s move into classifieds. When you look at the success of Craigslist, it’s hard to imagine how it could be more successful. Beside leaving advertising money on the table to stay loyal to the free user base, one must look at the missing social connection. At the end of the day Craigslist is a best-of-breed online classified website nothing more, nothing less. Facebook on the other hand has the ability to offer all the features of Craigslist to a huge user base as well as provide the coveted social connection users crave. In addition, it legitimises the trustworthiness of the buyer and sellers by revealing who is connected to who.

Although classified competition will continue to heat up…social networks will continue to persevere by building walled-gardens and catering to its’ users as a one-stop shop. Niche social networks may end up being the resilient cockroaches of the Web 2.0 blowout.

NYT has the full scoop.