OLX.com targets Craiglist and job ads -- the free classifieds threat

Free classifieds site and craigslist competitor OLX.com raised $13.5m yesterday which brings this Buenos Aires based company's funding to $23.5m. TechCrunch has the story and some interesting comments left by accomplished co-founder Fabrice Grinda:

Americans are not likely to have heard of OLX because its popularity lies mainly outside of the United States in places like Spain, India, Portugal, Mexico, South America, China, and the Philippines. It has established a presence in a total of 40 countries while supporting 15 languages. Much of its success in the Philippines can be attributed to its white label partnership with Friendster. Its offices are also spread over the globe with 92 employees working out of New York, Buenos Aires, Beijing, and Moscow.

The job board landscape is evolving so quickly, it's really difficult to know where it's all going. But it's important to keep in mind that craigslist is a top job board in our midst. And it's mostly free. Even where Craig charges, it costs $25 a post, a pittance really. OLX says it plans to stay free and exist on AdSense and upgrades. Poke around and you'll see OLX is using a Beyond.com feed.

Now, I don't think the sky is falling for 'traditional' job boards. As Doug Geinzer points out, quality and usability is still a big issue for Craigslist. It's a multi-billion dollar marketplace and there's room for everyone. 

But, click on this compete.com icon to see a graph of website traffic at free classifieds competitors olx.com, kijiji.com,  oodle.com, and craigslist.org -- that's a lot of traffic.  I do think we should be inspired by the momentum in free classifieds to think deeply about our sources of competitive advantage. Your competitive advantage can come from:

• a category defining domain
• a lifetime of experience and contacts in a niche
• being the first to develop a niche
• a low cost structure due to scale, outsourcing or special marketing partnerships
• quality, usability and service
• marketing, seo and management skills
• passion for the business - working harder than the next guy

What are your sources? How secure are they? I see a trend where folks in Argentina or India for example are targeting US job board markets. Think about it. Can you compete with someone whose payroll is only half of yours or less? Read a little of Gautam Ghosh's interview with RiseSmart's CEO:

5. Who do you think are your main competitors?

No one does what we do, which is why we're so excited about our future. TheLadders has carved out a niche as a job board for $100K+ earners, but it offers members only a limited pool of jobs which are posted on their site by recruiters. Their database of jobs is less than a tenth the size of ours. And the monthly subscription fee they charge is comparable to ours. So why would anyone choose them over us? I think our value proposition is pretty compelling. Just that we are new so people do not know about us.

6. How many employees does RiseSmart have?

Currently 30 across New Delhi and Dallas.

I'm not sure why Sanjay left out Dave Opton's Execunet.com... but anyhow, the point is we're all looking at a hypercompetitive environment for job boards when we look five years down the road. That's the future of the internet and especially for a highly productive segment like the internet recruiting market. What will you do to prepare for that future when all jobs are everywhere and you might have direct competitors living on another continent? Are free classifieds a threat to job boards?