Craigslist is a centralized network of online urban communities, featuring free classified advertisements (with jobs, housing, personals, for sale/barter/wanted, services, community, gigs and resumes categories) and forums sorted by various topics.
It was founded in 1995 by Craig Newmark for the San Francisco Bay Area. After incorporation in 1999, Craigslist expanded into nine more U.S. cities in 2000, four each in 2001 and 2002, and 14 in 2003. As of November 2006, Craigslist had established itself in approximately 450 cities all over the world.
As of 2007, Craigslist operates with a staff of 24[1] people. Its sole source of revenue is paid job ads in select cities ($75 per ad for the San Francisco Bay Area; $25 per ad for New York; Los Angeles; San Diego; Boston; Seattle; Washington D.C.), and paid broker apartment listings in New York City ($10 per ad).
It serves over 5 billion page views per month, putting it in 34th place overall among web sites world wide, 8th place overall among web sites in the United States (per Alexa.com on December 29, 2006), to 10 million unique visitors. With over 10 million new classified ads each month, Craigslist is the leading classifieds service in any medium. The site receives over 500,000 new job listings each month, making it one of the top job boards in the world. [1] The classified advertisements range from traditional buy/sell ads and community announcements, to personal ads and even "erotic services".
Although the company does not disclose financial information, journalists have speculated that its annual revenue approached $10 million in 2004.
In December 2006, Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster appeared at the UBS Global Media Conference in New York and perplexed Wall Street analysts by telling them Craigslist has little interest in maximizing profit from the website but instead prefers only to help users find cars, apartments, jobs and dates.
Contents
[hide]
* 1 Background
* 2 Significant events
* 3 Controversies
o 3.1 Sale of sex, drugs, stolen items
* 4 Handles and flags
* 5 Nonprofit foundation
* 6 Awards
* 7 Cities
* 8 Notes and references
* 9 See also
* 10 External links
o 10.1 Official sites
o 10.2 News and media
o 10.3 Other
[edit] Background
Craigslist World Headquarters in San Francisco's Sunset District
Craigslist World Headquarters in San Francisco's Sunset District
Having observed people (on the Net, The WELL, and Usenet) helping one another in a friendly, social and trusting community way, and feeling a bit isolated as a relative newcomer to San Francisco, Craigslist founder Craig Newmark decided to create something similar for local events.
The first postings debuted in early 1995. The initial technology encountered some limits, so by June of 1995 majordomo had been installed and the mailing list "craigslist" resumed operations. Most of the early postings were submitted by Craig and were notices of social events of interest to software and internet developers living and working in San Francisco.
Soon word-of-mouth led to rapid growth. Both subscribers and the number of postings grew rapidly. There was no moderation, so Craig was a bit surprised when people started using the mailing list for non-event postings. People trying to fill technical positions found the list was a good way to reach people with the skills they were looking for. This led to the addition of a category for "jobs". User demand for more categories caused the list of categories to grow. About this time community members started asking for a web interface. So Craig enlisted the help of volunteers and contractors to create a website user interface for the different mailing list categories.[citation needed] Needing a domain name for this, Craig registered "craigslist.org" and later "craigslist.com" to prevent the name "craigslist" from being used for something else.
By early 1998 Craig still thought his career was as a software engineer ("hardcore java programmer") and that craigslist was a cool hobby that was getting him invited to the best parties for geeks and nerds. In fall 1998 the name "List Foundation" was introduced and Craigslist started transitioning to the use of this name. In April 1999, when Craig learned of other organizations called "List Foundation", the use of this name was dropped. About this time Craig realized craigslist was growing so fast it would be best if he stopped working as a software engineer and work full time running craigslist. By April 2000 there were nine employees working out of Craig's flat on Cole Street in San Francisco.[2] Newmark says that Craigslist works because it gives people a voice, a sense of community trust and even intimacy. Other factors he cites are consistency of down-to-earth values, customer service and simplicity. After first being approached about running banner ads, Newmark decided to keep Craigslist non-commercial. In 2002, Craigslist staff posted mock-banner ads throughout the site as an April Fools joke.[3]
[edit] Significant events
In January 2000, current CEO Jim Buckmaster joined the company as lead programmer and CTO. Buckmaster contributed the site's multi-city architecture, search engine, discussion forums, flagging system, self-posting process, homepage design, personals categories, and best-of-Craigslist feature. He was promoted to CEO in November 2000. [2]
In 2002, a disclaimer was put on the "men seeking men", "casual encounters", "erotic services", and "rants and raves" boards to ensure that those who clicked on these sections were over the age of 18. No disclaimer was on the "men seeking women," "women seeking men" or "women seeking women" boards. Responding to charges of discrimination and negative stereotyping, Buckmaster explained that the company's policy is a response to user feedback requesting the warning on the more sexually explicit sections, including "men seeking men" [3]. Today, all of the above listed boards (and some others, including the "rants and raves" section) lead to a disclaimer.
In 2003 Michael Ferris Gibson filmed the documentary 24 Hours on Craigslist.
On August 1, 2004, Craigslist began charging $25 to post job openings on the New York and Los Angeles pages. On the same day, a new section was added called "Gigs", where low-cost and unpaid jobs and internships can be posted for free.
On August 13, 2004, Newmark announced on his blog that auction giant eBay had purchased a 25% stake in the company from a former principal. Some fans of Craigslist have expressed concern that this development will affect the site's longtime non-commercial nature, but it remains to be seen what ramifications the change will actually have.
In July 2005, Craigslist won the right to beam over 2 million classified ads into deep space (one light year away) in the near future after Buckmaster won an eBay auction for broadcasting time from the company Deep Space Communications Network. Newmark said, "We believe there could be an infinite market opportunity" in space. [4].
[edit] Controversies
In July 2005, the San Francisco Chronicle castigated Craigslist for allowing ads from dog breeders, and thereby allegedly encouraging the overbreeding and irresponsible selling of pit bulls in the Bay Area. [5]
Wikinews has news related to:
Craigslist sued for hosting discriminatory housing ads
In 2005, Craigslist received its share of controversy for not removing listings for the sale of Live 8 tickets on its websites.
In January, 2006, the San Francisco Bay Guardian published an editorial criticizing Craigslist for moving into local communities and "threatening to eviscerate" local alternative newspapers. Craigslist has been compared to Wal-Mart, a multinational corporation that some feel crushes small local businesses when they move into towns and offer a huge assortment of goods at arguably cheaper prices. [6].
In February 2006, Craigslist was sued by the Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law for allegedly allowing users to post discriminatory housing ads in Chicago that violate the Fair Housing Act. The case was subsequently dismissed. [7]
On September 8, 2006 several sites [8] reported that Craigslist's "Casual Encounters" forums in several cities had been compromised by individuals posting fraudulent ads in order to obtain personal information about people. This information, including email addresses, phone numbers, home addresses, photos, etc. was publicly posted online.
In April 2007, a Tacoma, Washington housing unit was gutted and vandalized after an anonymous Craigslist ad asked people to "Come and take what you want. Everything is free. Please help yourself to anything on the property.” [9]
[edit] Sale of sex, drugs, stolen items
One of the most popular forums on Craigslist, the Erotic forum features many ads offering sex from people seeking compensation. Law enforcement often uses Craigslist in decoy operations. Craigslist cooperates with law enforcement agencies to stop its users from selling drugs, sex and stolen property.[citation needed]
[edit] Handles and flags
Some forums do not require user registration. Those who wish to participate in "registered" (R) or "registered-only" (R+) forums must register and choose a "handle" or name. Users are permitted to "flag" posts that violate Craigslist policy, such as spamming (advertising), or the ban on any discrimination in housing. Once a handle has been flagged enough, the user may be banned under that handle and must re-register if they wish to continue posting on such forums. Craigslist relies on community flagging, but some articles are removed by staff. It is common for "sharpshooters" to flag specific posters for invalid reasons, so some handles are banned simply because of improper flags. If a handle is banned the user will not be given any explanation and will not be able to log on.
[edit] Nonprofit foundation
In 2001, the company started the Craigslist Foundation, a § 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that helps emerging nonprofit organizations get established, gain visibility, attract the attention of potential donors, and develop the skills and knowledge required for long-term success.
It accepts charitable donations, and rather than directly funding organizations, it produces face-to-face events and offers online resources to help grassroots organizations get off the ground and contribute real value to the community.
