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Screenshot of the main page on January 26, 2008

Craigslist is a centralized network of online communities, featuring free online classified advertisements – with sections devoted to jobs, housing, personals, for sale, services, community, gigs, résumés, and discussion forums.

Craig Newmark began the service in 1995 as an email distribution list of friends, featuring local events in the San Francisco Bay Area, before becoming a web-based service in 1996. After incorporation as a private for-profit company in 1999, Craigslist expanded into nine more U.S. cities in 2000, four in 2001 and 2002 each, and 14 in 2003.

In 2009, Craigslist operated with a staff of 28 people.^[3] Its main 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 City, Los Angeles, San Diego, Boston, Seattle, Washington D.C., Chicago, Philadelphia and Portland, Oregon – and paid broker apartment listings in New York City ($10 per ad).

The site serves over twenty billion page views per month, putting it in 33rd place overall among web sites worldwide and 7th place overall among web sites in the United States (per Alexa.com on June 28, 2010), with over 49.4 million unique monthly visitors in the United States alone (per Compete.com on January 8, 2010). With over eighty million new classified advertisements each month, Craigslist is the leading classifieds service in any medium. The site receives over two million new job listings each month, making it one of the top job boards in the world.^[4][5] The classified advertisements range from traditional buy/sell ads and community announcements to personal ads. The adult services (previously erotic services) section has been a matter of controversy over claims that it promotes prostitution.^[6]

The site is notable for having undergone only minor design changes since its inception; even by 1996 standards, the design is very simple. Since 2001, the site design has remained virtually unchanged, and as of April 2010, Craigslist continues to avoid using images and uses only minimal CSS and JavaScript, a design philosophy common in the late 1990s but almost unheard of today for a major website.^{[citation needed]}

In December 2006, at the UBS Global Media Conference in New York, Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster told Wall Street analysts that Craigslist has little interest in maximizing profit, instead it prefers to help users find cars, apartments, jobs, and dates.^[7][8]

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.^[9][10][11] 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.^[11][12][13]

Having observed people helping one another in friendly, social and trusting communal ways on the Internet via the WELL, MindVox and Usenet, and feeling isolated as a relative newcomer to San Francisco, Craigslist founder Craig Newmark decided to create something similar for local events.^[14]

The first emailed San Francisco event listings debuted in early 1995. The initial technology encountered some limits, so by June 1995 majordomo had been installed and the mailing list "Craigslist" resumed operations. Most of the early postings were submitted by Newmark 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. The number of subscribers and postings grew rapidly. There was no moderation and Newmark was surprised when people started using the mailing list for non-event postings.^{[citation needed]} People trying to get technical positions filled found that 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. Community members started asking for a web interface. Newmark enlisted the help of volunteers and contractors to create a website user interface for the different mailing list categories.^{[citation needed]} In need of a domain name for this, Craig registered "craigslist.org" (and later, "craigslist.com", to prevent the name "Craigslist" from being used for other purposes).^{[citation needed]} Around the time of these events, Newmark realized that the site was growing so fast that he could stop working as a software engineer and work full time running Craigslist. By April 2000, there were nine employees working out of Newmark's apartment on Cole Street in San Francisco.^[15]

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. Newmark was approached with an offer for running banner ads on Craigslist, but he decided to decline. In 2002, Craigslist staff posted mock-banner ads throughout the site as an April Fools joke.^[16]

Craigslist uses a user flagging system to quickly identify illegal and inappropriate postings. When users flag a posting a certain number of times, it is removed. Items are flagged for three categories: misplaced, prohibited, or spam/overpost.^[17] Although users are given a short description of each flagging category, users ultimately flag on their preference, prejudice, or misunderstanding of the Craigslist Terms of Use.^[18] To better understand and clarify flagging it is up to the users to define rules themselves in such places as the Unofficial Flagging FAQ^[19] and the flag help forum.^[20]

In 2001, the company started the Craigslist Foundation,^[31] a § 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that connects people to the resources they need to strengthen communities and neighborhoods. It offers free and low cost events and online resources to promote community building at all levels. 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".

Since 2004, the Craigslist Foundation has hosted an annual conference called Boot Camp, an in-person event that focuses on skills for connecting, motivating and inspiring greater community involvement and impact. Boot Camp has drawn more than 10,000 people since its inception^{[citation needed]}. The latest Boot Camp event was held on Saturday, August 14, 2010.^[32]

The Craigslist Foundation is also the fiscal sponsor for Our Good Works, the organization that manages AllforGood.org, an application that distributes volunteer opportunities across the web and helps people get involved in their communities.^[33]

The first 14 city sites were:^[13] (entire list)

Vancouver, British Columbia was the first non-U.S. city included. London was the first city outside North America.

In November 2004, Amsterdam, Bangalore, Paris, SĂŁo Paulo, and Tokyo became the first cities outside primarily English-speaking countries.

As of May 2008^[update], 500 "cities" in 50 countries have Craigslist sites.^[13] Some Craigslist sites cover large regions instead of individual metropolitan areas — for example, the U.S. states of Delaware and Wyoming, the Colorado Western Slope, the California Gold Country, and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan are among the locations with their own Craigslist sites. As of 24 September 2009 (2009 -09-24)^[update], there are 695 unique Craigslist sites that can be posted to.

In March 2008, Spanish, French, Italian, German, and Portuguese became the first non-English languages supported.^[34]

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