About Craigslist

History

In 1995 a software engineer named Craig Newmark began a mailing list, known as "craigslist," to advertise events in the San Francisco area. The list was intended primarily for Internet and software developers. Over time, however, subscribers began to use the list as a means of advertising or looking for jobs, or even apartments. By 1996 the list developed a Website, craigslist.org, and began to add more categories. By 2000 Craigslist had branched out to other cities. As of 2008 Craigslist.org had become one of the top 50 Websites in the world.

According to Website traffic company Alexa.com, more than 1 percent of global Internet users visit Craigslist in an average day (although more than 90 percent of these users reside in the United States). Since its initial inception in San Francisco, Craigslist has since expanded to more than 450 cities in 50 countries. Its services are now available in English, French, German and Spanish. Each month Craigslist posts millions of job postings alone, and tens of millions of classifieds total.

The bare-bones interface provides forums for apartments, jobs, garage sales and even dates. The Website remains completely free to the average user and contains no banner ads. Its sole source of revenue comes by charging companies to post job ads in select major metropolitan areas (or in New York City, charging brokers to post apartment listings). While the company does not disclose its financial information, analysts suggest that Craigslist had pulled in $81 million in 2008 alone. Its board consists of founder Craig Newmark, CEO Jim Buckmaster and eBay, which purchased a 25 percent stake in the company in 2004. And despite its impressive revenue, Craigslist employs only 25 people as of 2008. Its headquarters continue to inhabit a modest, three-story building in San Francisco's Sunset District.

Craigslist has not been without controversy: in 2008 eBay sued Craigslist for allegedly having "unfairly diluted eBay's economic interest." And as an open forum, the site's capacity for anonymity has allowed some users to engage in illegal activity. One woman attempted to hire a contract killer through the site. In Oregon, one couple posted a fraudulent ad that invited people to come and take whatever they pleased from another man's home. Craigslist also also pledged to crack down on its "erotic services" section to discourage its use for prostitution.

Some users have successfully built their lives around Craigslists' services: discovering an apartment in the "housing" section, furnishing it from the "free" section, and finding a significant other in the "missed connections" section. In 2004 the documentary film "24 Hours on Craigslist" was produced with crew and music recruited entirely off of the forum. The film followed the real-life adventures of several posters, all of whom had posted on Craigslist on Aug. 4, 2003.

Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster holds the singular distinction of being "possibly the only CEO ever described as anti-establishment, a communist and a socialistic anarchist."