Craigslist is a centralized network of online communities for free classified advertisements (with jobs, internships, housing, personal advertisements, erotic services, for sale/barter/wanted, services, community, and pets categories) and forums on various topics.

Description 
The service was founded in 1995 by Craig Newmark for the San Francisco Bay Area. After incorporation as a private for-profit company in 1999, Craigslist expanded into nine more U.S. cities in 2000, four each in 2001 and 2002, and 14 in 2003. By September 2007, Craigslist had established itself in approximately 450 cities in 50 countries.

In 2007 Craigslist operated with a staff of 24 people.
Its sole source of revenue is paid job ads in select cities ($75 per ad for the San Francisco Bay Area; $25 per ad for New York, Los Angeles, San Diego, Boston, Seattle, Washington, D.C., Chicago and recently Portland, Oregon) and paid broker apartment listings in New York City ($10 per ad).

The site serves over nine billion page views per month, putting it in 56th place overall among web sites worldwide, ninth place overall among web sites in the United States (per Alexa.com on January 10, 2008), to over thirty million unique visitors. With over thirty million new classified advertisements each month, Craigslist is the leading classifieds service in any medium. The site receives over two million new job listings each month. So it is one of the top job boards in the world.

Criticism 
 In July 2005, the San Francisco Chronicle criticized Craigslist for allowing ads from dog breeders, and thereby allegedly encouraging the over breeding and irresponsible selling of pit bulls in the Bay Area.
 In January 2006, the San Francisco Bay Guardian published an editorial criticizing Craigslist for moving into local communities and "threatening to eviscerate" local alternative newspapers. Craigslist has been compared to Wal-Mart, a multinational corporation that some feel crushes small local businesses when they move into towns and offer a huge assortment of goods at cheaper prices.
 In August 2007, Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin wrote a letter to Craigslist asking the company to take steps to avoid unwittingly enabling child prostitution through its classified ads.

Nonprofit foundation 
In 2001, the company started the Craigslist Foundation, a § 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that helps emerging nonprofit organizations get established, gain visibility, attract the attention of potential donors, and develop the skills and knowledge required for long-term success.

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.

Awards 
 NYPRESS: 2003, Best Local Website, by Manhattan Reader's Poll
 Webby: 2001, Best Community Site, by the Academy

Cities 
The first 14 city sites were: (entire list )
 March 1995: San Francisco Bay Area
 June 2000: Boston
 August 2000: Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Portland, San Diego, Seattle, Washington, D.C.
 October 2000: Sacramento
 April 2001: Atlanta, Austin, Denver, Vancouver
Vancouver, British Columbia, was the first non U.S. city included.
London was the first city outside North America.

In November 2004, Amsterdam, Bangalore, Paris, Sao Paulo and Tokyo became the first cities outside of primarily English speaking countries.

In May 2008, 500 cities in 50 countries are represented.

References

Other websites

Official sites 
 Craigslist homepage
 Craigslist Foundation

News and media 
 Craig of Craigslist.org by Frederic Neema, A feature story by photojournalist Frederic Neema
 Zen and the Art of Classified Advertising, A WSJ Interview with Jim Buckmaster, Craigslist CEO
 Craig Newmark, Craigslist founder  on the Tavis Smiley show
 List in Space: Calling the Cosmos Gets Commercial, a March 2005 article about classifieds from Craigslist
 Craigslist and the Craigslist Foundation , an October 2001 article from the San Francisco Art Magazine website
 iinnovatecast interview with Craig Newmark by Stanford business school students and alums
 Tacoma woman's house emptied after craigslist hoax News report on a house falling victim to Craigslist prank and being stripped out
 Craigslist's problem with overflow of spam, scams and offenders 

1995 establishments in California
Advertising
Companies based in San Francisco