A few weeks ago, I posted an ad to sell a storage cabinet on Craigslist and within 4 hours, I received 3 emails, 2 texts and one phone call. So, I contacted the first interested party and set up a showing for the next day and poof, that cabinet was gone with the wind. Cost to me: $0.00. I had $70 in pocket and the buyers went merrily on their way with a storage cabinet. I started thinking, as many others have, how exactly does Craigslist make money and who is this Craig anyway? In my research, I learned that Craigslist is on pace to make more $100 million in revenue this year based on analysis by classified advertising industry consultants Advanced Interactive Media Group. So then how do the newspapers advertising sales agents feel after a year of withering ad revenue and dwindling classified sections? (Another rewrite for this sentence because newspapers don’t feel, people feel. Not sure how to rewrite, sorry). Well probably not ecstatic as more and more people are using the internet to list and search for classified ads and often times as with my sale, the cost is nothing. Craigslist charges only for a tiny percentage of ads; $25 for a job posting in most markets and a small $10 fee for a brokered apartment. But that small percentage will generate over $100 million in fees this year for Craigslist, not bad for an office of only 30 employees located in the Inner Sunset neighborhood of San Francisco.

And about the founder Craig Newmark? Craig remains fairly low-key, he works in customer service and wants to keep Craigslist simple. When asked “Do you think you would increase your revenues by allowing ads? Why do you not have them?” Craig’s reply, “Why? How would that serve the community?” That’s a slightly understated answer coming from the founder of a site that has more than 50 million US users and ranks #7 worldwide in terms of english-language page views.