Call it a transfer. As we have seen above, the classified market for US newspapers is down 20% to 30% from a year ago. In the meantime, Craigslist, the mostly free #1 classified website in the US is quietly heading for the $100m mark in revenue. According to a report by the research firm Classified Intelligence, Craigslist is expected to generate more than $80m in revenues this year. It is mostly profit since the San Francisco-based classified company has a staff of only 24.
Here a summary of Craigslist’s growth in revenue terms :
2003……… $7m
2004……… $9m
2005……… $15m (approx)
2006……… $30m
2007……… $55m
2008……… $81m (estimates)
Some of these figures are estimates since Craigslist is a privately held company and isn’t required to disclose financial results. Other numbers for Craigslist:
Unique Visitors/mo…..28m (source : Quantcast)
Page views/month……..9bn
New classified/mo…….30m
New jobs listing/mo…..2m
Craigslist’s business model still has much upside. On the 450 markets it serves worldwide, the company charges in only 11 of them, all in the US. Jobs listings cost from $25 to 75 and apartments ads placed by broker in New York City are charged $10. Just figure out the impact of any adjustments in the cursor.
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