A few weeks back I interviewed the founder, Daniel Scudder, of college classified site Dormitem and since then, guess what, I have come across another college classified site known as CollegeMedium.
At this rate, there will be more college-based classified sites on the net than we can handle. But the question is: Which site is going to reach that critical tipping point? Which site will win this race or can these sites coexist?
Or maybe the real question is: When will facebook step into the mix and create a classified system of their own?
When comparing Dormitem and CollegeMedium head to head, I think that both sites are heading in the right direction and offer equally powerful systems to help college students; but in terms of design, I’m going with CollegeMedium.
Here’s the interview with CollegeMedium founder, Emmanuel Azih:
What’s your case that makes your site better than Craigslist?
Cragislist is a great service that relies on the good nature of human beings. It is with this embedded trust that such a site thrives and succeeds.
CollegeMedium, on the other hand, plays an active role to ensure the protection of our users. For example, since only students are allowed to post items for sale, most transactions will occur on campus, which limits the temptation of crime or fraud based on false identities or interests.
In addition, CollegeMedium has certain restrictions on the site to ensure that Jobs, and Housing can only be viewed by student accounts as determined through facebook or a valid .edu address.
Would you say that you have a superior service that Dormitem.com and why?
It would be unfair to compare Dormitem to CollegeMedium as CollegeMedium intends to connect students with non-students while Dormitem’s simply serves as a marketplace for students.
From a web design or aesthetic perspective, I’ll let the readers come up with their own conclusions.
Aren’t you scared of facebook implementing a classified service and rendering your site among many other college classified sites obsolete
overnight?
facebook is a great utility that we’ve strongly incorporated in CollegeMedium. However, when people go to facebook, they go there to browse profiles and ‘poke’ hotties, not to buy and sell items, find jobs, or roommates.
Furthermore, while integrating a classifieds section onto facebook seems like the next logical step, I strongly doubt that’ll happen. A classifieds site is simply a different form of advertising, which is already facebook’s primary revenue stream. As such, creating a free-classifieds
section would seem a bit counter intuitive.
Why do you think so many college students are focusing on classified services and which are the ones most likely to succeed?
Well the potential is tremendous, and everyone recognizes that. The difficult piece is connecting all the schools together and getting students
to use the site. facebook has successfully done that with their social utility. At CollegeMedium we’re not focused on having a college or student-only classifieds site. We simply want to connect students with non-students, companies, and other students from surrounding schools.
The sites that are most likely to succeed have to recognize that focusing on students alone may seem like a great idea, but to successfully gain
user-generated content it must be open to non-students as well.
Be honest: if you came across CollegeMedium and Craigslist 2 years ago, which one would you use?
Well it depends on my needs. If I’m looking for a student to perform a part-time job, or even a student roommate I’ll wholeheartedly visit
CollegeMedium to fulfill that need. Alternatively, if I need someone with a few years of experience then Craigslist would most certainly be the better
option.
How was it being an entrepreneur at Georgia Tech? Come across a lot of startups over there? Can you talk about any?
Funny thing is at Georgia Tech I never really thought I’d end up an entrepreneur. I was studying Electrical Engineering in hopes of making that
a permanent career. Promptly after graduating, I found a gap between students and non-students and I’m simply trying to bridge that gap.
How have your marketed your service and what has been most effective in getting the word out?
Georgia Tech has been really supportive. They were actually the first to write an article about the site and since then we’ve been featured in a lot
more magazines in the Atlanta Area. I personally believe if you build something that’s worth talking about, people will talk about it.
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