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Craigslist (stylized as craigslist) is an American classified advertisements website with sections devoted to jobs, housing, for sale, items wanted, services,
community service Community service is unpaid work performed by a person or group of people for the benefit and betterment of their community without any form of compensation. Community service can be distinct from volunteering, since it is not always performe ...
, gigs,
résumé A résumé, sometimes spelled resume (or alternatively resumé), also called a curriculum vitae (CV), is a document created and used by a person to present their background, skills, and accomplishments. Résumés can be used for a variety of rea ...
s, and discussion forums.
Craig Newmark Craig Alexander Newmark (born December 6, 1952) is an American internet entrepreneur and philanthropist best known as the founder of the classifieds website Craigslist. Prior to founding Craigslist, he worked as a computer programmer for compani ...
began the service in 1995 as an email distribution list to friends, featuring local events in the
San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area G ...
. It became a web-based service in 1996 and expanded into other classified categories. It started expanding to other U.S. and Canadian cities in 2000, and now covers 70 countries.


History

Having observed people helping one another in friendly, social, and trusting communal ways on the Internet via
the WELL The Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link, normally shortened to The WELL, was launched in 1985. It is one of the oldest continuously operating virtual communities. By 1993 it had 7,000 members, a staff of 12, and gross annual income of $2 million. ...
, MindVox and
Usenet Usenet () is a worldwide distributed discussion system available on computers. It was developed from the general-purpose Unix-to-Unix Copy (UUCP) dial-up network architecture. Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis conceived the idea in 1979, and it wa ...
, and feeling isolated as a relative newcomer to San Francisco, Craigslist founder
Craig Newmark Craig Alexander Newmark (born December 6, 1952) is an American internet entrepreneur and philanthropist best known as the founder of the classifieds website Craigslist. Prior to founding Craigslist, he worked as a computer programmer for compani ...
decided to create something similar for local events. In early 1995, he began an email distribution list to friends. Most of the early postings were submitted by Newmark and were notices of social events of interest to software and Internet developers living and working in the
San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area G ...
. The number of subscribers and postings grew rapidly via manual advertising. There was no moderation and Newmark was surprised when people started using the mailing list for non-event postings. People trying to get technical positions filled found that the list was a good way to reach people with the skills they were looking for. This led to the addition of a jobs category. User demand for more categories caused the list of categories to grow. The initial technology encountered some limits, so by
Majordomo A majordomo is a person who speaks, makes arrangements, or takes charge for another. Typically, this is the highest (''major'') person of a household (''domūs'' or ''domicile'') staff, a head servant who acts on behalf of the owner of a large ...
had been installed and the mailing list "Craigslist" resumed operations. Community members started asking for a web interface. Newmark registered "craigslist.org", and the website went live in 1996. In the fall of 1998, the name "List Foundation" was introduced and Craigslist started transitioning to the use of this name. In , when Newmark learned of other organizations called "List Foundation", the use of this name was dropped. Craigslist was incorporated as a private for-profit company in 1999. Around the time of these events, Newmark realized the site was growing so fast that he could stop working as a software engineer and devote his full attention to running Craigslist. By , there were nine employees working out of Newmark's San Francisco apartment. In January 2000, current CEO Jim Buckmaster joined the company as lead programmer and CTO. Buckmaster contributed the site's multi-city architecture, search engine, discussion forums, flagging system, self-posting process, homepage design, personals categories, and best-of-Craigslist feature. He was promoted to CEO in . The website expanded into nine more U.S. cities in 2000, four in 2001 and 2002 each, and 14 in 2003. On August 1, 2004, Craigslist began charging $25 to post job openings on the New York and Los Angeles pages. On the same day, a new section called "Gigs" was added, where low-cost and unpaid jobs can be posted free. In March 2008, Spanish,
French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
, Italian,
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...
, and Portuguese became the first non-English languages Craigslist supported. As of August 9, 2012, over 700 cities and areas in 70 countries had Craigslist sites. Some Craigslist sites cover large regions instead of individual metropolitan areas—for example, the U.S. states of
Delaware Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent ...
and
Wyoming Wyoming () is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the southwest, and Colorado to t ...
, the
Colorado Western Slope The Western Slope is the part of the state of Colorado west of the Continental Divide. Bodies of water west of the Divide flow toward the Pacific Ocean; water that falls and flows east of the Divide heads east toward the Gulf of Mexico. The Wes ...
, the
California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
Gold Country The Gold Country (also known as Mother Lode Country) is a historic region in the northern portion of the U.S. state of California, that is primarily on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada. It is famed for the mineral deposits and gold mines ...
, and the
Upper Peninsula of Michigan The Upper Peninsula of Michigan – also known as Upper Michigan or colloquially the U.P. – is the northern and more elevated of the two major landmasses that make up the U.S. state of Michigan; it is separated from the Lower Peninsula by ...
. Craigslist sites for some large cities, such as
Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...
, also include the ability for the user to focus on a specific area of a city (such as central Los Angeles).


Operations

The site serves more than 20 billion page views per month, putting it in 72nd place overall among websites worldwide and 11th place overall among websites in the United States (per
Alexa.com Alexa Internet, Inc. was an American web traffic analysis company based in San Francisco. It was a wholly-owned subsidiary of Amazon. Alexa was founded as an independent company in 1996 and acquired by Amazon in 1999 for $250 million in stock. ...
on , 2016), with more than unique monthly visitors in the United States alone (per
Compete.com Compete.com was a web traffic analysis service. The company was founded in 2000 and ceased operations in December 2016. Services Compete.com provided two categories of information: *Site Analytics : a free service, where the user can enter any ...
on , 2010). With more than new classified advertisements each month, Craigslist is the leading classifieds service in any medium. The site receives more than new job listings each month, making it one of the top job boards in the world. The 23 largest U.S. cities listed on the Craigslist home page collectively receive more than 300,000 postings per day just in the "for sale" and "housing" sections as of October 2011. The classified advertisements range from traditional buy/sell ads and community announcements to personal ads. In 2009, Craigslist operated with a staff of 28 people.


Financials and ownership

In December 2006, at the
UBS UBS Group AG is a multinational investment bank and financial services company founded and based in Switzerland. Co-headquartered in the cities of Zürich and Basel, it maintains a presence in all major financial centres as the largest Swi ...
Global Media Conference in New York, Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster told
Wall Street Wall Street is an eight-block-long street in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It runs between Broadway in the west to South Street and the East River in the east. The term "Wall Street" has become a metonym for ...
analysts that Craigslist had little interest in maximizing profit, and instead preferred to help users find cars, apartments, jobs and dates. Craigslist's main source of revenue is paid job ads in select American cities. The company does not formally disclose financial or ownership information. Analysts and commentators have reported varying figures for its annual revenue, ranging from $10 million in 2004, $20 million in 2005, and in 2006 to possibly in 2007. ''Fortune'' has described their revenue model as "quasi-socialist", citing their focus on features for users regardless of profitability. Eric Baker of StubHub has described the site as a "potential gold mine of revenue, if only it would abandon its communist manifesto." On August 13, 2004, Newmark announced on his blog that auction giant
eBay eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became ...
had purchased a 25% stake in the company from a former employee. Some fans of Craigslist expressed concern that this development would affect the site's longtime non-commercial nature. , there have been no substantive changes to the usefulness, or the non-advertising nature of the site; neither banner ads, nor charges for a few services provided to businesses. The company was believed to be owned principally by Newmark, Buckmaster and
eBay eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became ...
(the three board members). eBay owned approximately 25%, and Newmark is believed to own the largest stake. In April 2008,
eBay eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became ...
announced it was suing Craigslist to "safeguard its four-year financial investment". eBay claimed that in , Craigslist executives took actions that "unfairly diluted eBay's economic interest by more than 10%". Craigslist filed a counter-suit in to "remedy the substantial and ongoing harm to fair competition" that Craigslist claimed was constituted by eBay's actions as Craigslist shareholders; the company claimed that it had used its minority stake to gain access to confidential information, which it then used as part of its competing service
Kijiji Kijiji.ca ( ; , ''village'') is a Canadian online classified advertising website and part of eBay Classifieds Group, which was acquired by Adevinta in 2020. It operates sections for cities and urban regions, for posting local advertisements. Kij ...
. On June 19, 2015, eBay Inc. announced that it would divest its stake back to Craigslist for an undisclosed amount, and settle its litigation with the company. The move came shortly before eBay's planned spin-off of
PayPal PayPal Holdings, Inc. is an American multinational financial technology company operating an online payments system in the majority of countries that support online money transfers, and serves as an electronic alternative to traditional paper ...
, and an effort to divest other units to focus on its core business. The Swedish luxury marketplace website Jameslist.com received a lawsuit filed on July 11, 2012 which among unspecified damages also asked for a complete shutdown of Jameslist.com As a consequence, the young company was forced to rename to JamesEdition.


Content policies

As of 2012,
mashup Mashup may refer to: * Mashup (culture), the rearrangement of spliced parts of musical pieces as part of a subculture * Mashup (education), combining various forms of data and media by a teacher or student in an instructional setting * Mashup (m ...
sites such as padmapper.com and housingmaps.com were overlaying Craigslist data with
Google Maps Google Maps is a web mapping platform and consumer application offered by Google. It offers satellite imagery, aerial photography, street maps, 360° interactive panoramic views of streets (Street View), real-time traffic conditions, and rou ...
and adding their own search filters to improve usability. In June 2012, Craigslist changed its terms of service to disallow the practice. In July 2012, Craigslist filed a lawsuit against padmapper.com. Following the shutdown of Padmapper.com, some users complained that the service was useful to them and therefore should have remained intact.


App

In December 2019, Craigslist introduced a platform for iOS and a beta version on Android.


Site characteristics


Personals

Over the years Craigslist had become a very popular online destination for arranging for dates and sex.Craigslist hookups
Timeout.com, 2009
College student to launch 'sex hookup site: It's safer than CraigList, and cheaper than bars
, ABC News
Paul LaRosa and Maria Cramer
''Seven Days of Rage: The Deadly Crime Spree of the Craigslist Killer''
Simon and Schuster, 2009.
Risky Sex- and Drug-Seeking in a Probability Sample of Men-for-Men Online Bulletin Board Postings
by Christian Grov
The personals section allows for postings that are for "strictly platonic", "dating/romance", and "casual encounters". The site was considered particularly useful by lesbians and gay men seeking to make connections, because of the service's free and open nature and because of the difficulty of otherwise finding each other in more conservative areas.The Hottest Spot Online – The explosively popular-and free-Craigslist attracts both gay men and lesbians by the thousands but the guys and gals aren't generally looking for the same things
by Ann Rostow. '' The Advocate''.
In 2005, San Francisco Craigslist's
men seeking men Men who have sex with men (MSM) are male persons who engage in sexual activity with members of the same sex. The term was created in the 1990s by epidemiologists to study the spread of disease among all men who have sex with men, regardless of ...
section was attributed to facilitating sexual encounters and was the second most common correlation to
syphilis Syphilis () is a sexually transmitted infection caused by the bacterium '' Treponema pallidum'' subspecies ''pallidum''. The signs and symptoms of syphilis vary depending in which of the four stages it presents (primary, secondary, latent, a ...
infections. The company has been pressured by San Francisco Department of Public Health officials, prompting Jim Buckmaster to state that the site has a very small staff and that the public "must police themselves". The site has, however, added links to
San Francisco City Clinic San Francisco City Clinic also known as SF City Clinic or usually as City Clinic is a municipal public sexual health clinic specializing in sexually transmitted infections testing and treatment, in addition to advocacy work and medical research ...
and STD forums. On March 22, 2018, Craigslist discontinued its "Personals" section in the United States in response to the passing of the
Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act The FOSTA (Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act) and SESTA (Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act) are the U.S. Senate and House bills that became law on April 11, 2018. They clarify the country's sex trafficking law to mak ...
(SESTA), which removes
Section 230 Section 230 is a section of Title 47 of the United States Code that was enacted as part of the United States Communications Decency Act and generally provides immunity for website platforms with respect to third-party content. At its core, Secti ...
safe harbours for interactive services knowingly involved in illegal sex trafficking. The service stated that
US Congress just passed HR 1865, 'FOSTA', seeking to subject websites to criminal and civil liability when third parties (users) misuse online personals unlawfully. Any tool or service can be misused. We can't take such risk without jeopardizing all our other services, so we are regretfully taking craigslist personals offline. To the millions of spouses, partners, and couples who met through craigslist, we wish you every happiness!


Adult services controversy

Advertisements for "adult" (previously "erotic") services were initially given special treatment, then closed entirely on , 2010, following a controversy over claims by state attorneys general that the advertisements promoted prostitution. In 2002, a disclaimer was put on the "men seeking men", "casual encounters", "erotic services", and "rants and raves" boards to ensure that those who clicked on these sections were over the age of 18, but no disclaimer was put on the "men seeking women", "women seeking men" or "women seeking women" boards. As a response to charges of sex discrimination and negative
stereotyping In social psychology, a stereotype is a generalized belief about a particular category of people. It is an expectation that people might have about every person of a particular group. The type of expectation can vary; it can be, for example ...
, Buckmaster explained that the company's policy is a response to user feedback requesting the warning on the more sexually explicit sections, including "men seeking men". On May 13, 2009, Craigslist announced that it would close the ''erotic services'' section, replacing it with an ''adult services'' section to be reviewed by Craigslist employees. This decision came after allegations by several U.S. states that the erotic services ads were being used for prostitution. On September 4, 2010, Craigslist closed the adult services section of its website in the United States. The site initially replaced the adult services page link with the word "censored" in white-on-black text. The site received criticism and complaints from attorneys general that the section's ads were facilitating prostitution and child sex trafficking.Craigslist removes ads for adult services
James Temple, ''San Francisco Chronicle'', , 2010
The adult services section link was still active in countries outside of the U.S. Matt Zimmerman, senior staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said, "Craigslist isn't legally culpable for these posts, but the public pressure has increased and Craigslist is a small company." Brian Carver, attorney and assistant professor at UC Berkeley, said that legal threats could have a chilling effect on online expression. "If you impose liability on Craigslist, YouTube and Facebook for anything their users do, then they're not going to take chances. It would likely result in the takedown of what might otherwise be perfectly legitimate free expression."Craigslist removes ads for adult services
James Temple, ''San Francisco Chronicle'', September 4, 2010
On , 2010, the "censored" label and its dead link to adult services were completely removed. Craigslist announced on September 15, 2010, that it had closed its adult services in the United States; however, it defended its right to carry such ads. Free speech and some sex crime victim advocates criticized the removal of the section, saying that it threatened free speech and that it diminished law enforcement's ability to track criminals. However, the removal was applauded by many state attorneys general and some other groups fighting sex crimes. Craigslist said that there is some indication that those who posted ads in the adult services section are posting elsewhere. Sex ads had cost $10 initially and it was estimated they would have brought in $44 million in 2010 had they continued. In the four months following the closure, monthly revenue from sex ads on six other sites (primarily
Backpage was a classified advertising website founded in 2004 by the alternative newspaper chain New Times Inc./New Times Media (later known as Village Voice Media or VVM) as a rival to Craigslist. Similar to Craigslist, Backpage let users post a ...
) increased from $2.1 to $3.1 million, partly due to price increases. The company has made efforts to fight prostitution and sex trafficking, and in 2015,
Craig Newmark Craig Alexander Newmark (born December 6, 1952) is an American internet entrepreneur and philanthropist best known as the founder of the classifieds website Craigslist. Prior to founding Craigslist, he worked as a computer programmer for compani ...
received an award from the FBI for cooperation with law enforcement to fight human trafficking. On , 2010, after pressure from Ottawa and several provinces, Craigslist closed 'Erotic Services' and 'Adult Gigs' from its Canadian website, even though prostitution was not itself illegal in Canada at the time. When the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act was signed into law on April 11, 2018, Craigslist chose to close its "Personals" section within all US domains to avoid civil lawsuits. About their decision, Craigslist stated "Any tool or service can be misused. We can't take such risk without jeopardizing all our other services."


Flagging

Craigslist has a user flagging system to report illegal and inappropriate postings. Flagging does not require account login or registration, and can be done anonymously by anyone. Postings are subject to automated removal when a certain number of users flag them. The number of flags required for a posting's removal is dynamically variable and remains unknown to all but Craigslist staff. Some users allege that flagging may also occur as acts of vandalism by groups of individuals at different ISPs, but no evidence of this has ever been shown. Flagging can also alert Craigslist staff to blocks of ads requiring manual oversight or removal. Flagging is also done by Craigslist itself (Craigslist's automated systems) and the posts will never appear on the search results.


Bartering

Craigslist includes a
barter In trade, barter (derived from ''baretor'') is a system of exchange in which participants in a transaction directly exchange goods or services for other goods or services without using a medium of exchange, such as money. Economists disti ...
option in its "for sale" section. This growing trade economy has been documented on the television program '' Barter Kings'' and the blog
one red paperclip One red paperclip is a website created by Canadian blogger Kyle MacDonald, who traded his way from a single red paperclip to a house in a series of fourteen online trades over the course of a year. MacDonald was inspired by the childhood game '' ...
.


Criticism

In July 2005, the ''
San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The pa ...
'' criticized Craigslist for allowing ads from dog breeders, stating that this could encourage the over-breeding and irresponsible selling of pitbulls in the Bay Area. According to Craigslist's terms of service, the sale of pets is prohibited, though re-homing with small adoption fees is acceptable. In January 2006, the ''
San Francisco Bay Guardian The ''San Francisco Bay Guardian'' was a free alternative newspaper published weekly in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 1966 by Bruce B. Brugmann and his wife, Jean Dibble. The paper was shut down on October 14, 2014. It was relaun ...
'' published an editorial claiming that Craigslist could threaten the business of local alternative newspapers. L. Gordon Crovitz, writing for ''
The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'', criticized the company for using lawsuits "to prevent anyone from doing to it what it did to newspapers", contrary to the spirit of the website, which bills itself in a "noncommercial nature, public service mission, and noncorporate culture". This article was a reaction to lawsuits from Craigslist which Crovitz says were intended to prevent competition. Craigslist filed a trademark lawsuit against the Swedish luxury marketplace website Jameslist.com on July 11, 2012, forcing the company to rename to JamesEdition. In 2012, Craigslist sued PadMapper, a site that hoped to improve the user interface for browsing housing ads, and 3Taps, a company that helped PadMapper obtain data from Craigslist, in '' Craigslist v. 3Taps''. This led users to criticize Craigslist for trying to shut down a service that was useful to them.


Nonprofit foundation

In 2001, the company started the Craigslist Foundation, a §
501(c)(3) A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code. It is one of the 29 types of ...
nonprofit organization that offered free and low-cost events and online resources to promote community building at all levels. It accepts charitable donations, and rather than directly funding organizations, it produces "face-to-face events and offers online resources to help grassroots organizations get off the ground and contribute real value to the community". In 2012, the Craigslist Foundation closed, with charity work moving to supporting charitable funds.


In popular culture


Films

* '' 24 Hours on Craigslist'' (2005), an American feature-length documentary that captures the people and stories behind a single day's posts on Craigslist * ''
Due Date ''Due Date'' is a 2010 American black comedy road film directed by Todd Phillips, who wrote the screenplay with Alan R. Cohen, Alan Freedland, and Adam Sztykiel. The film follows a man (Robert Downey Jr.) who must get across the country to Los An ...
'' shows one of the lead characters, Ethan (
Zach Galifianakis Zachary Knight Galifianakis (born October 1, 1969) is an American actor and comedian. He appeared in ''Comedy Central Presents'' special and presented his show ''Late World with Zach'' on VH1. Galifianakis has starred in films including ''Th ...
), buying
marijuana Cannabis, also known as marijuana among other names, is a psychoactive drug from the cannabis plant. Native to Central or South Asia, the cannabis plant has been used as a drug for both recreational and entheogenic purposes and in various t ...
from a dealer through the site. * '' The Craigslist Killer'' (January 3, 2011), a Lifetime made-for-TV movie featuring the story of Philip Markoff, who was accused of robbing and/or murdering several prostitutes he met through Craigslist's adult services section. * ''
Craigslist Joe ''Craigslist Joe'' is a 2012 documentary film that follows Joseph Garner for a month of travel across the United States, solely supporting himself by contacting people on the website Craigslist. He spent the month without using any form of curre ...
'' (August 2012), a documentary featuring a 29-year-old man living for 31 days solely from donations of food, shelter, and transportation throughout the U.S., found via Craigslist * '' Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates'' (2016), a comedy based on a real Craigslist ad placed by two brothers who wanted dates for their cousin's wedding that went viral in February 2013, which they then turned into a book, ''Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates: And a Thousand Cocktails''.


Television

* The American comedy series ''
Bored to Death ''Bored to Death'' is an American comedy series that ran on HBO from September 20, 2009, to November 28, 2011. The show was created by author Jonathan Ames, and stars Jason Schwartzman as a fictional Jonathan Ames—a writer based in Brooklyn, N ...
'' revolves around a fictional
Jonathan Ames Jonathan Ames (; born March 23, 1964) is an American author who has written a number of novels and comic memoirs, and is the creator of two television series, ''Bored to Death'' (HBO) and '' Blunt Talk'' (STARZ). In the late '90s and early 2000s, ...
(played by
Jason Schwartzman Jason Francesco Schwartzman (born June 26, 1980) is an American actor and musician. Schwartzman made his film debut in Wes Anderson's 1998 film '' Rushmore'', and has gone on to appear in six other Anderson films: '' The Darjeeling Limited'' ( ...
) who posts an ad on Craigslist advertising himself as an unlicensed private detective. * The premise of the sitcom ''
New Girl ''New Girl'' is an American television sitcom created by Elizabeth Meriwether and produced by 20th Television for Fox that originally aired from September 20, 2011, to May 15, 2018. The series revolves around a kooky teacher, Jessica Day ( Zoo ...
'' centers around a girl ( Zooey Deschanel) who looks on Craigslist to find new roommates. She misunderstands one of the listings and ends up moving in with three men, when she had intended to find female roommates. * The American television mockumentary comedy sitcom ''
Modern Family ''Modern Family'' is an American family sitcom television series created by Christopher Lloyd and Steven Levitan for the American Broadcasting Company. It ran for 11 seasons, from September 23, 2009, to April 8, 2020. It follows the lives of th ...
'' in the 10th episode of the third season " Express Christmas" mentions Craigslist when
Phil Dunphy ''Modern Family'' is an American TV comedy series revolving around three families interrelated through Jay Pritchett, his son Mitchell Pritchett, and his daughter Claire Dunphy. The families meet for family functions (usually around their three ...
played by Ty Burrell buys a signed
Joe Dimaggio Joseph Paul DiMaggio (November 25, 1914 – March 8, 1999), nicknamed "Joltin' Joe", "The Yankee Clipper" and "Joe D.", was an American baseball center fielder who played his entire 13-year career in Major League Baseball for the New York Yank ...
card for his father-in-law Jay played by Ed ONeill.


Theatre

* In November 2007, Ryan J. Davis directed Jeffery Self's solo show ''My Life on the Craigslist'' at
off-Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer th ...
's New World Stages. The show focuses on a young man's sexual experiences on Craigslist and was so successful that it returned to New York by popular demand in .


Video games

* 2008's '' Grand Theft Auto IV'' features a parody of Craigslist called 'Craplist', which can be accessed by the player through the game's in-game internet feature. The player can browse the site and view numerous satirical adverts.


Songs

* In June 2009,
"Weird Al" Yankovic Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic ( ; born October 23, 1959) is an American singer, musician, songwriter, record producer, actor and author. He is best known for creating comedy songs that make light of pop culture and often parody specific ...
released a song entitled " Craigslist", which parodied the types of ads one might see on the site. The song was a style parody of
The Doors The Doors were an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1965, with vocalist Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, guitarist Robby Krieger, and drummer John Densmore. They were among the most controversial and influential rock acts ...
and featured Doors member
Ray Manzarek Raymond Daniel Manzarek Jr. (né Manczarek; February 12, 1939 – May 20, 2013) was an American keyboardist. He is best known as a member of the Doors, co-founding the band with singer and lyricist Jim Morrison in 1965. Manzarek was induc ...
on the keyboards. * In 2006, composer Gabriel Kahane released an album of his satirical
art songs An art song is a Western vocal music composition, usually written for one voice with piano accompaniment, and usually in the classical art music tradition. By extension, the term "art song" is used to refer to the collective genre of such songs ...
for voice and piano, entitled "Craigslistlieder", using excerpts from real Craigslist ads as text.


Media

* Craigslist received attention in the media in 2011 and 2014 when it was reported that convicted murderers had used the platform to lure their victims. *The site has been described by
Martin Sorrell Sir Martin Stuart Sorrell (born 14 February 1945) is a British businessman and the founder of WPP plc, the world's largest advertising and PR group, both by revenue and the number of staff. Upon being ousted in April 2018, Sorrell was the longe ...
as "socialistic anarchist".


See also

*
eBay eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became ...
* Facebook Marketplace *
Kijiji Kijiji.ca ( ; , ''village'') is a Canadian online classified advertising website and part of eBay Classifieds Group, which was acquired by Adevinta in 2020. It operates sections for cities and urban regions, for posting local advertisements. Kij ...
*
Mercari Mercari, Inc. () is a Japanese e-commerce company founded in 2013, with offices in the United States. Their main product, the Mercari marketplace app, was first launched in Japan in July 2013, and has since grown to become Japan's largest communi ...
*
OfferUp OfferUp is an online mobile-first C2C marketplace with an emphasis on in-person transactions. It was founded as a competitor to Craigslist, differentiating itself with mobile-friendly apps and user profiles with ratings. History OfferUp was cr ...


References


Further reading

* ''Gale Directory of Company Histories'', "craigslist" (2007
online


External links

*
Company blog

Craigslist Foundation
* * {{Authority control Companies based in San Francisco American companies established in 1995 Retail companies established in 1995 Internet properties established in 1995 Marketing companies established in 1995 1995 establishments in California Privately held companies based in California Online marketplaces of the United States 2004 mergers and acquisitions Internet forums Classified advertising websites