Craigslist.org Website Design Review

ARTICLE SNIPPET - The Incredible Website Usability of Craigslist.org is a Key Component in the Success of this Community Phenomenon.

Craigslist (CL) was a simple community classified site started in 1995 by Craig Newmark (yes, Virginia, there is a Craig). The originally-non-profit site was incorporated in 1999. There are 190 versions of the website—localized by city—throughout the world, featuring free classified advertisements (jobs, housing, for sale, services, personals, gigs and community) and forums.

Although Jim Buckmaster was brought in as CEO in 2000, Craig has kept the titles of Founder, Chairman and Customer Service Representative. Having the company founder list "Customer Service Representative" among his titles would seem like a cheesy bit of PR, but in this case there is enough evidence to support the truth of the intent. Craig has kept his "service mission and non-corporate culture" values central to how he runs the company. For example:

• The site has a peace symbol favicon, and keeps a dot-org level domain as well as a dot-com.
• Craig's Blog talks about his personal views on Internet (and other) issues, not an excuse for CL PR.
• Users can comment on corporate decisions, and negative comments are not removed.
• Although as a private company CL could keep a lot quieter, the recent Fair Housing lawsuit (in Chicago) is publicly discussed on the site.
• CL accepts no banner advertising.
• CL runs a non-profit foundation.
• The About pages include words like: inclusive, giving a voice to the disenfranchised and humane, non-commercial environment.

This touchy-feely community site has had some serious business success. Craigslist has more than 10 million users and 8 million classified ads each month. While there are no public revenue numbers, given the simple business model, we can make a reasonable estimate. The site accepts paid listings for job postings from NY and LA ($25), and SF ($75). With about 1000 listings per workday, multiplying out for 260 workdays per year, revenues for 2006 should be at least $33 million.

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