One might argue that the look and feel of craigslist matches its use. It also had a great first-mover advantage and vacuumed up all the mindshare for classifieds very early on. It's hard to compete with that, even with a shiny well tested design.
A lot of the comments here are pointing out outliers that succeeded due to reasons such as first mover advantage combined with network effects. In more competitive spaces, design still matters.
A lot of the comments here are pointing out outliers that succeeded due to reasons such as first mover advantage combined with network effects. In more competitive spaces, design still matters.