Etsy is expanding the definition of ‘artisanal’ to include factory-made items

In some ways, the story of Etsy has been the recent story of Brooklyn.

A cool thing that once sold DIY, interesting products for too much money then had a big-time IPO that brought tremendous wealth, and that now brands things like factories “artisanal” in the name of increasing revenue.
Bloomberg has a great article on the changes at Etsy, by Susan Berfield.

Fred Wilson, Etsy’s lead independent director and co-founder of Union Square Ventures, an early investor in the company, says thinking about Etsy only as a marketplace for handmade goods is too limiting. “Etsy serves a larger community than that,” he says. “I don’t see handmade as something that’s at the core of Etsy’s values. More important is that it’s person-to-person commerce.”

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