Craigslist Is Growing! Global Expansion Of The Popular Site

While the San Francisco Bay Area was the first to appreciate Craigslist, it took five years for the site to expand to other areas. In June 2000, Craigslist opened for Boston. In August 2000, it opened for Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Portland, San Diego, Seattle and Washington, D.C. Later, Sacramento, Atlanta, Austin and Denver were included. However, a monumental action took place in 2001.

In 2001, the first non-U.S. city was added to the Craigslist servicing area. Vancouver, British Columbia was the first non-American city on the list. After it was such a hit in Vancouver, Craigslist opened an area of the site for London (which was the first city outside of North America to be added). In 2004, Amsterdam, Bangalore, Paris, Sao Paulo and Tokyo were added as the first group of non-English speaking countries to be added. In May 2008, there were a total of 500 cities in 50 countries represented on Craigslist. As a result, the Craigslist site currently operates in English, French, Italian, German, Portuguese and more.

When Craigslist was founded in 1995 by Craig Newmark, it was certain he had no idea global expansion was even a possibility. He started the list for friends and family and it quickly became a worldwide phenomenon. The remarkable fact about the global expansion is the company still operates at the hands of only 24 staff members, located in California. The main source of their revenue is the adds for the larger city areas and their efficient way of operating requires no more staff members, even with expansion globally.

The beauty behind the global expansion is the ease of the process. Newmark claims the Craigslist site spreads through word of mouth. There are no major ad campaigns going on to advertise the site, because they are unneeded. Instead, people are drawn to the site because other people they know utilize it. Once they are there and witness the ease-of-use and the functionality of the site, they are hooked! Craigslist remains so popular because it gives a voice to people, offers a sense of community, offers a sense of trust, offers services and merchandise, offers job postings and much more. Because of these incredible offerings (free of charge), Craigslist is likely to remain the most popular site of its kind for many years to come. Thus, even further global expansion is expected.