What is Craigslist & Craigslist Review

Craigslist is a large-scale free classified advertising website founded by Craig Newmark in 1995 in the San Francisco Bay Area of ​​California, USA. It is the leader in classified information websites. There are no pictures on the website, only dense texts with various life information. It is a huge combination of online classified advertisements and BBS. The classified information on the website includes job recruitment, house rental and sale, second-hand product trading, housekeeping, entertainment, and sensitive search for opposite-sex friends.

About Craigslist

· Craigslist may seem boring, but it is one of the most popular websites in the United States. Some people sell their old cars here, some rent their favorite houses here, some find jobs here, and some find girlfriends here.

The classified information on Craigslist includes job recruitment, house rental and sale, second-hand product transactions, housekeeping services, regional activity guides, and finding romantic partners. Fees are only charged for job advertisements in New York, Los Angeles, Washington, Boston, Seattle, San Diego, and San Francisco. All other classified information is provided voluntarily by netizens and is free of charge.

Craigslist is a free platform. All information is posted freely and for free. To monitor malicious information, the website mainly relies on customer feedback.

·It has been 20 years since its establishment in 1995, and it still maintains a small team and semi-commercial operation. In addition to serving the United States, it has also opened special edition services in hundreds of cities in nearly 100 countries around the world.

Currently, Craigslist has: from the founder, CEO, to customer service consultants and technicians, about half of them are engaged in technology and the other half are engaged in customer service. They have to deal with a large amount of information release, email detection and other tasks every day, but they are able to cope with the development of Craigslist around the world with ease.

The website divides services into several categories, including community, housing, work, dating, and sales. Users can also post resumes and performance information.

According to data released by M:Metrics, a US market research company, classified information website Craigslist is the website that US mobile phone users spend the most time browsing, with eBay ranking second. M:Metrics data shows that in the US market, Craigslist is the website that mobile phone users spend the most time browsing, with an average browsing time of 1 hour and 39 minutes per month. M:Metrics said that Craigslist has two major advantages in attracting mobile phone users: one is that the page is designed with text, which can load quickly even when the signal is weak; the other is that it focuses on local information.

Craigslist Tagging Feature

Craigslist has a user flagging system feature that can quickly identify illegal and inappropriate posts. Users may flag posts that they believe violate Craigslist guidelines. Reporting does not require an account login or registration and can be done anonymously by anyone. When a certain number of users flag a post, it is automatically deleted.

Adult services controversy

On May 13, 2009, Craigslist announced that it would shut down its Porn Services section and replace it with an Adult Services section that would be moderated by Craigslist employees.

- On September 4, 2010, Craigslist shut down the adult services section of its US website. When Craigslist shut down the adult services section on its US website, it deliberately replaced the section with the word "censored" in protest. However, when shutting down the section on its international website, Craigslist did not do so and did not issue a statement.

- On September 8, 2010, the "censored" tag and its dead link to adult services were completely removed.

-On September 15, 2011, Craigslist announced that it had shut down its adult service in the United States, however, it defended its right to carry such ads.

On Dec. 19, 2010, under pressure from Ottawa and several provinces, Craigslist shut down the listings for "erotic services" and "adult performances" from its Canadian site, even though prostitution itself was not illegal in Canada at the time.

- Following the passage of the FOSTA bill on April 11, 2018, Craigslist stopped offering its "Personals" section on all US domains, stating that "any tool or service can be abused."

- In the controversial process, Craigslist said that the section was originally created at the request of users to keep Craigslist's free online dating section free from adult advertising information. Although Craigslist has been criticized by state attorneys general, the company's operations are legal. According to relevant laws, the information publisher should be held responsible, not the Internet service itself.

Criticism

-In July 2005, the San Francisco Chronicle criticized Craigslist for allowing ads from dog breeders, claiming that this could encourage overbreeding and irresponsible selling of pit bulls in the Bay Area.

-In January 2006, the San Francisco Bay Guardian published an editorial claiming that Craigslist could threaten the business of local alternative newspapers.

-As of 2012, mashup sites such as padmapper.com and housingmaps.com overlay Craigslist data with Google Maps and add their own search filters for improved usability.

- In June 2012, Craigslist changed its terms of service to prohibit this practice.

- In July 2012, Craigslist filed a lawsuit against padmapper.com, a website that wanted to improve the user interface for browsing housing ads, and 3Taps, a company that helped PadMapper obtain data from Craigslist, Craigslist v. 3Taps.

Development History

-Founded in 1995 by Craig Newmark in San Francisco.

-Expanded to 9 or more U.S. cities in 1999.

-As of 2003, it has expanded to 14 cities.

-Since 2004, the Craigslist Foundation has hosted eight annual conferences called Boot Camp, an in-person event focused on skills to connect, motivate, and encourage greater community involvement and impact.

As of September 2007, Craigslist is available in approximately 450 cities.

Craigslist is the world's leading classifieds service, with over two million new job listings posted each month. Classifieds range from traditional buy/sell ads and community bulletins to personal ads and even erotic services.

-As of summer 2013, the functionality of the Craigslist Foundation has mostly moved to LikeMinded.org, and CraigsListFoundation.org is no longer updated.

- In 2014, Craigslist's revenue increased significantly after it opened up advertising in areas such as automobiles. Consulting firm AIM Group estimated that Craigslist's revenue in 2014 reached $335 million.