The service was founded in 1995 by Craig Newmark for the San Francisco Bay Area. After incorporation as a private for-profit company in 1999, Craigslist expanded into nine more U.S. cities in 2000, four each in 2001 and 2002, and 14 in 2003. As of September 2007, Craigslist had established itself in approximately 450 cities in 50 countries.
As of 2007, Craigslist operates with a staff of 24 people.[1] 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 Chicago) and paid broker apartment listings in New York City ($10 per ad).
The site serves over five billion page views per month, putting it in 34th place overall among web sites world wide, ninth place overall among web sites in the United States (per Alexa.com on December 29, 2006), to ten million unique visitors. With over ten million new classified advertisements 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.[2] The classified advertisements range from traditional buy/sell ads and community announcements, to personal ads and even erotic services.
In December 2006, at the UBS Global Media Conference in New York, Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster perplexed Wall Street analysts by stating that Craigslist has little interest in maximizing profit, instead preferring to help users find cars, apartments, jobs, and dates.
The company does not formally disclose financial or ownership information. Analysts and commentators have reported varying figures for its annual revenue, ranging from $10 million in 2004, $20 million in 2005, and $25 million in 2006 to possibly $150 million in 2007.[3][4][5] It is believed to be owned principally by Newmark, Buckmaster, and eBay (the three board members). eBay owns approximately 25%, and Newmark is believed to own the largest stake.[6][5]