profile updated May 1, 2008, 3:29 PM
Craigslist, Inc.
If The Grateful Dead had been programmers instead of musicians, Craigslist would have been their website. Instead, it fell to an unassuming guy from New Jersey to launch the impossibly plain yet remarkably successful list of stuff that has a following every bit as loyal as a Deadhead.
The story of the list is by now so well-known as to assume the status of legend. Craig Newmark was working and living in San Francisco at the dawn of the commercial Internet age when, one day, he started an email list of things of interest to his friends and acquaintances. One friend told another and the list began to grow in what may have been the first, wildly successful viral email campaign. By 1999, the list had moved onto the World Wide Web and Newmark quit his IT job to concentrate on running the list fulltime. It was about then that Craigslist, never intended as a non-profit, began to charge for job listings.
Now, in early 2008, Craigslist has dozens of categories of listings, including real estate, apartments, cars, furniture, sex and, of course, jobs. Listings are specific to a city or region; Craigslist has editions for some 450 areas around the world and publishes listings in English, Italian, French, Portuguese, and German.
Revenue comes principally from job postings. Craigslist charges $25 to post a job, but only in 10 areas: Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Orange County, Portland, Sacramento, San Diego, Seattle, and Washington DC. The charge in San Francisco is $75. Everywhere else a job posting is free.
Estimates of Craigslist's income range as high as $80 million for 2008, a figure which, if anywhere near close, would value the company at over $1 billion. That would make the estimated $10 million to $12 million eBay paid for a 28.4 percent share in Craigslist seem like the deal of the century.
Why use Craigslist? The short answer is, it works. Any number of recruiter surveys put Craigslist at or near the top in terms of response and value. IT recruiters in Silicon Valley in particular consider it a must for sourcing engineers and programmers.
It's not the place to post for every opening. But with a U.S. visitor demographic that is young, Internet savvy, educated, and looking for a first or move-up job, Craigslist is replete with entry-level jobs, internships, and part-time positions. Since it began accepting resumes a while back, Craigslist is also a place to search for candidates to fill a req without posting it.
News & Updates 
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Craigslist Considering Charging For Job Postings In More Cities (Silicon Alley Insider)
Even Craigslist is not immune from U.S. economic conditions, reports Silicon Alley Insider. Reports SAI: "Employment ads are flat in the first six months of 2008, reflecting a slowdown in Craigslists' biggest and most mature markets - San Francisco, New York City, Los Angeles, Seattle, Boston and DC."
But elsewhere, employment ads continue to grow and Craigslist exec Jim Buckmaster says the company may start charging for job postings in Atlanta, Austin, Denver, Houston, Miami, Philadelphia and Phoenix.
Jul 26, 2008, 11:52 AM -
Details Released in Shareholder Suit By eBay Against Craigslist (Paid Content)
Paid Content reports details on the lawsuit by eBay. There are links to the text of the suit and to the Craigslist blog where CEO Jim Buckmaster responds. May 1, 2008, 12:42 PM -
Ebay Sues Craigslist (www.nytimes.com)
Ebay is suing Craiglist claiming founder Craig Newmark and his CEO, Jim Buckmaster, have diluted the value of Ebay's 28.4 percent share of the company. Apr 23, 2008, 7:49 PM
Products & Services
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Job Postings
Unadorned job postings are $25 for a month online in ten cities: Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Orange County, Portland, Sacramento, San Diego, Seattle and Washington DC. In San Francisco, a posting costs $75. There are discounts for blocks of job postings. -
Resume Searching
It's clunky, doesn't necessarily import easily into an ATS and you'll have to search community by community, but for a free service it can't be beat. Resumes - and we use the term loosely - are mostly for entry-level and part-time positions. But there are gems in there, especially in the IT and creative areas.