Craigslist.org, the online community for local classified listings in cities across the globe, is expanding into approximately 120 new cities, according to a blog post by founder Craig Newmark at cnewmark.com.
According to a fact sheet at craigslist.org, the service previously was available in 450 cities worldwide, which means the new additions would bring craigslist’s coverage to some 570 cities.
In his blog post, Newmark noted Ramallah, a Palestinian city in the central West Bank, is one of the new cities.
Craigslist, a for-profit San Francisco-based company that operates a global network of market-specific sites, has become a staple for real estate listings in many cities, and brokers and agents often use the sites to post listings of homes for sale.
Craigslist generated an estimated $55 million last year in revenue and is on track to take in $81 million in revenue this year, according to a recent report by research and consulting company Classified Intelligence.
Craigslist and other online classified sites have cut deeply into ad revenue for print classifieds as advertisers have increasingly flocked to cheap and free online advertising sources.
A 2004 Classified Intelligence report estimated that the popularity of craigslist represented an annual $50 million to $65 million drain to newspapers in the San Francisco Bay Area in job ads alone, while company founder Craig Newmark has said niche sites such as Autotrader.com and Monster.com may be having a bigger impact on print-ad revenue shrinkage.
The company charges $25 for job ads in 10 major U.S. metro areas and $75 for job ads in the San Francisco area. Also, craigslist charges $10 for real estate ads placed by agents and brokers in the New York City area.
Craigslist has reported that its network of sites draws about 9 billion page views a month, 30 million new classified ads each month, 10 million new images uploaded each month, and 2 million new job listings each month. The company has 25 full-time employees who work at the company’s San Francisco headquarters.
Craigslist founder and customer service representative Craig Newmark will speak at Real Estate Connect in San Francisco, July 23-25.
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