There are a lot of niche opportunities in larger segments. The hard part is always getting attention / traction, getting those first thousand customers to pay, getting enough money to afford some marketing and support (if necessary).
Just a simple example: HomeAway's huge vacation rentals business. Within the larger super category ('for rent by owner'), there are long term rentals, and that's a niche compared to the much larger vacation rental market. Several years ago, you could have created a modest business around that smaller niche, charging $30 or $50 per year for a listing. 10,000 listings at $50 per year becomes a nice, likely quite profitable, small business.
Real estate listing concepts are great if you can get traction and listings, the costs of hosting and serving up the data and images might as well be zero.
Just a simple example: HomeAway's huge vacation rentals business. Within the larger super category ('for rent by owner'), there are long term rentals, and that's a niche compared to the much larger vacation rental market. Several years ago, you could have created a modest business around that smaller niche, charging $30 or $50 per year for a listing. 10,000 listings at $50 per year becomes a nice, likely quite profitable, small business.
Real estate listing concepts are great if you can get traction and listings, the costs of hosting and serving up the data and images might as well be zero.