Craig Newmark, or Mr. Craigslist himself is not interested in selling his social-networking site, even though another social-networking site, MySpace was just valued at a possible $15 billion in the next few years. Craig is apparently content and just fine with the already-comfortable life he has. In the cut-throat world of buying and selling off web companies, Craig's outlook is uniquely refreshing. All I have to say is "good for you Craig." Keep up the good work. I guess his site is a good example of the fact that UI isn't always the biggest seller, but the ability of a website to serve people can be very minimalist, if it functions well.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
10-04-2006 @ 9:28AM
Robert said...
I still cannot figure out how the craigslist.org site generates ANY income!!
What am I missing here??
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10-04-2006 @ 9:34AM
Miss Cellania said...
Thats a lesson I want my children to learn: as long as you're not starving, an occupation you enjoy is worth more than all the riches you'll never find time to spend.
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10-04-2006 @ 9:35AM
Chris Gilmer said...
I think alot of the income comes from job postings. Costing starts at about $75 per category. ChaChing!
Seriously though, all it would take is to drop 1 Google AdSense unit on each page. With all that traffic, they are pretty much guaranteed at making in upwards of $five figures, if not more, a day!
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10-04-2006 @ 10:32AM
Ted said...
I thought Yahoo snapped Craigslist up a while ago.
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10-04-2006 @ 11:09AM
Gustavo said...
This is awesome. Stick with what you believe. Who needs a couple of billions? He has money and a good life, so he believes he doesnt needs to sell his soul. With a clean web page, minimun effort, Low budget project and a good cause = millions of happy, free users. We can learn a lot from his story.
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10-04-2006 @ 3:11PM
Jason said...
Q: Where does craigslist's revenue come from?
A: Our exclusive revenue source comes from the fees we charge businesses to post jobs. In the Bay Area, businesses pay $75. This August, we also began charging New York City and Los Angeles employers $25 per posting.
Found at: http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/sep2004/nf2004098_1574_db051.htm
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10-05-2006 @ 11:40AM
Christopher said...
Don't forget, he already sold a quarter of his business to Ebay a while back.
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10-05-2006 @ 3:43PM
Chris said...
"Don't forget, he already sold a quarter of his business to Ebay a while back."
No, if you had bothered to read the article you would have seen that a partner sold his share to Ebay, not Newmark.
"Craigslist is 25 percent owned by eBay after one of the shareholders who helped to set up the site in the 1990s sold his stake in 2004."
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10-09-2006 @ 3:25PM
Askar said...
Neat Mr. Craigslist. At times it makes sense to sell the company off to a big brother when it comes to the hassle of dealing with higher traffic, maintenance and other overheads...but not just for money. As Craig said before "who wants that much money?" Comfortable living is all it matters.
All these insanely priced buy-outs makes me feel that another bubble is about to burst.
Keep up the good work Craig.
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10-10-2006 @ 4:57PM
Mustang 2012 said...
He had better hope nobody comes along with something the buyers/sellers think is better because his comfortable lifestyle may come to an end. He'd be much better off taking the big payday so his future is set in stone.
BTW If you dont think it can happen, just look at some of the web search engines from years past. Excite was huge at one point.... I can't remember the last time I heard somebody talk about them. Hell I can't remember seeing a link to excite anywhere in the last five years.
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8-23-2007 @ 7:39PM
Charles said...
Good job CRAIG! KEEP IT UP.
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