I like what you're getting at, but I'm not sure you're correct. Yes, Reddit is being unbundled, but not necessarily for replacement of its verticals. They may be indirectly inspiring the startups you mention but will not be replaced.
For instance, Quora is not /r/AskReddit. AskReddit is much more casual, full of opinion and silly questions, whereas Quora is a lot more serious and formal and values quality and factuality much more than AskReddit does.
As for why CL and Reddit don't move with the times
"Why is this the case? I don’t know. But, my guess is that this leaves both Craigslist and reddit more vulnerable to unbundling effect, and this is a good sign for startups building within their verticals."
Simply, they haven't needed to yet. The threats haven't been obviously very strong, and they continue to have a lot of users and make strides (especially Reddit) in popularity, despite the apparent drawbacks.
Reddit's UX isn't actually that terrible, it's just a bit ugly-looking. It works quite well, in general, and isn't completely unintuitive.
Comments
I like what you're getting at, but I'm not sure you're correct. Yes, Reddit is being unbundled, but not necessarily for replacement of its verticals. They may be indirectly inspiring the startups you mention but will not be replaced.
For instance, Quora is not /r/AskReddit. AskReddit is much more casual, full of opinion and silly questions, whereas Quora is a lot more serious and formal and values quality and factuality much more than AskReddit does.
As for why CL and Reddit don't move with the times
"Why is this the case? I don’t know. But, my guess is that this leaves both Craigslist and reddit more vulnerable to unbundling effect, and this is a good sign for startups building within their verticals."
Simply, they haven't needed to yet. The threats haven't been obviously very strong, and they continue to have a lot of users and make strides (especially Reddit) in popularity, despite the apparent drawbacks.
Reddit's UX isn't actually that terrible, it's just a bit ugly-looking. It works quite well, in general, and isn't completely unintuitive.