Smalltown Competes with Craigslist
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Smalltown, a new Internet company in San Mateo, California, is competing with Craigslist and other classifieds like local newspapers and Yellow Pages.
The idea behind Smalltown is to provide a space for local businesses to interact with the community through web cards or “miniature websites.” The content on these web cards is user generated and includes things like menus, service rates, references and reviews.
Since businesses like local restaurants have a local radius of relevance, they have little need for a world wide presence. There is a progression toward web communities that provide users with geographic orientation, and Smalltown hopes to capitalize on this trend.
Like Craigslist, Smalltown does not generate profit by advertising and use of the site is free, however Smalltown hopes to get members to pay $40 per month for enhanced web cards.
Smalltown launched their first two sites in Burlingame and San Mateo last week, http://www.smalltown.com/burlingame and http://www.smalltown.com/sanmateo, but they hope to expand across the United States.
