Craigslist Poised For $81 Million In '08 Revenue; Could Top $100 Million: Report
This story was written by David Kaplan.
Craigslist stands to bring in $81 million in revenue in 2008, according to a report by researcher Classified Intelligence. If that comes true, it would represent a 47 percent gain over Craigslist's $55 million revenues for 2007. Despite a growing challenge from eBay-owned community postings site Kijiji.com, which launched in a number of U.S. cities last summer after establishing itself in Canada and Europe, CI believes Craigslist could top $100 million in revenues if it continues to add fees and site enhancements.
Peter Zollman, founding principal of CI and the report's author, praises Craigslist's to generate as much money as it does, considering it has just 25 employees and charges below-market rates for its ads - roughly, $25 to $75 for job posts in 11 markets, $10 for apartment listings in New York. Zollman: "What's more amazing is that frequently when it adds fees, it improves the product and makes its users and customers even happier."
Although Craigslist, which has a presence in 450 markets, acts like a non-proft in some ways, it has been pretty aggressive on challenging traditional newspaper publishers for classified listings revenues and maintaining its lead against potential rivals. One example cited by Zollman in the report includes the recent introduction of five non-English sites French, Portuguese, Italian, German and Spanish. Release
By David Kaplan