I built a competitor to Craigslist, then Facebook released Marketplace

Back in 2015, I created a social selling site called SocialTraders. My goal was to build a competitor to Craigslist on top of Facebook login. I went with a Pinterest-style design and forced users to log in using Facebook so they would not be anonymous. I planned to allow users to create groups for cities similar to Craigslist. This would allow groups to grow organically, and the group owner would be able to moderate their group to help prevent spam.

This was around the same time you would hear in the news about people being kidnapped while meeting to buy stuff on Craigslist. Within the first few weeks, I was able to get a few hundred users listing items on the site, and some even made sales.

This was my first serious side project, and I thought I was onto something big! I was listening to user feedback and adding new features. Back then, Facebook Groups were popular but did not have any buy/sell features that they do now. I partner with several Facebook For Sale Groups that wanted to move their group to the site and the site was growing.

Around 2016, Facebook released Marketplace, and I realized my site didn't stand a chance. I like to think they copied me :). I decided to shut down the site and move on to other projects. I was able to take what I learned and apply it to my current site T.LY. I still use the same stack Laravel for most of my projects. Building SocialTraders forced me to learn while building, which I think is the best approach. My advice is just to start, learn as much as possible, pivot when necessary, and enjoy the ride.

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