Craigslist revenue in 2008 may top $80 million, could reach $100 million

Craigslist, the free-classifieds Web site that has become a global phenomenon, is expected to generate $81 million in revenue in 2008 and could easily top $100 million with a few simple changes that might improve the service, a new report shows.

The report from Classified Intelligence, the leading consultants in the classified advertising field, estimated growth of 47 percent over $55 million in revenue for Craigslist in 2007. The 12-page report, which will be distributed with PowerPoint slides, also covers a number of issues facing Craigslist, such as its ìsleaze factor,î and its up-and-coming competitor, corporate cousin Kijiji.com.

ìCraigslist is generating an amazing amount of money for a company that has just 25 employees, and charges below-market rates for a tiny percentage of its ads,î said Peter M. Zollman, founding principal of CI. ìWhatís more amazing is that frequently when it adds fees, it improves the product and makes its users and customers even happier.î

Craigslist charges $25 to $75 for recruitment listings in 11 markets, all of them in the United States, and $10 for apartment ads placed by brokers in New York City. It has recently added sites in five languages ñ French, Portuguese, Italian, German and Spanish ñ and serves 450 markets.

ìBy providing free ads for so many products and services in so many communities, Craigslist has inadvertently squeezed traditional publishers and forced them to rethink many of their approaches to classifieds,î Zollman said. ìCraigslist behaves like a non-profit in many ways, but itís reacting to increased competition not only from traditional publishers but from other online classified sites ñ some of them free, and some of them paid.î

The report, which is available for $395 from ClassifiedIntelligence.com, is the fourth in a series of reports about Craigslist and free-classified sites that Classified Intelligence has published since 2004.