[moresocialism]

Airbnb had an unfair advantage: They used craigslist to get many of their first customers and prove the concept. This took technical knowledge that many business owners might not have.

Craigslist has since closed this loophole. If you notice, all messages sent between posters and users go through the craigslist servers, so they can not only watch for this sort of thing, but stop it from happening.

About 10 years ago, I started a business based on data mining. I built it into around $1,000,00/year in revenue and it lasted roughly 5 years before the industry changed, profits massively decreased, and I moved onto other business ideas.

Was this an unfair advantage? I think so. Nobody else was doing it at the time and it took lots of technical and industry knowledge to pull off.