Company story

Since its founding in 1995, Craigslist, Inc. has become synonymous with online classified ads. Though other companies and websites have entered this space over the years, there are few internet users who do not know about Craigslist or what it's used for. Craigslist Inc. was incorporated in California as a privately held company and, as of December 2019, neither of those things have changed.

Original concept

In its original form, Craigslist was a personal project of Craig Newmark's, an email distribution list to his personal contacts in the San Francisco area. It quickly gained momentum and launched a web presence a year later. Their emphasis and values have not changed in over 20 years, something that Craig Newmark has emphasized in numerous interviews and public statements. Craigslist, Inc. has been headquartered in San Francisco since it was created.

Realization of the idea

As a company, Craigslist has only ever maintained a single property: their website of the same name. They do not merchandise or diversify and this focused approach seems to have served them well. Their website does not even have external advertising; the company's sole source of revenue is paid classified ads within their own site. On more than one occasion, including interviews with HuffPost and Startups.com, Craig Newmark has given credit to his philosophy of "doing well by doing good."

Monetizing their own ads

Their practice of monetizing their own ads began in 1998 when it targeted certain types of ads posted by certain types of users. They began with job ads, to cover their own site costs, and over time expanded this practice to real estate ads posted by brokers, car ads posted by auto dealers, and so on. An anonymous employee once told Forbes that the practice of charging for ads was also intended to limit spam ads, but it made them so much money they weren't sure what to do with it.

Company value

Though they have maintained a commitment to making free ads available to most users and avoided other revenue streams, they have most likely grown to the billion dollar mark. Since Craigslist, Inc. does not make its financials public, this is an estimate, but one popularly held by various expert sources including Forbes, as stated in the above article.