Unbundling Work from Employment - by Li Jin

The internet and rise of micro-entrepreneurship

Sometimes in the economy, monolithic entities that serve many needs disintegrate into an ecosystem of single-purpose entities. When that happens, there’s a huge opportunity for startups. Take, for example, Craigslist. Since its founding 25 years ago, Craigslist’s horizontal breadth, coupled with its shallow feature set and stagnant product, has presented rich opportunities for startups to carve off vertical-specific niches. This is illustrated by the now-iconic market map of vertical-specific marketplace startups aiming to unbundle Craigslist and build optimized experiences for certain…

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