For newspapers, classified ads used to be a great revenue source. With the rise of online classified ads side such as Craigslist, this caused a big impact to their industry.
Rick Edmonds noted that the classified ads industry dropped from $10 billion in 2008 to just $6 billion in 2009. Compare that to the $19.6 billion worth it has back in 2000, you can see that it had a really drastic decline in worth. Because of the decline of the revenue from classified ads, it’s safe to say that it’s one cause why the newspaper industry is now suffering from financial troubles.
The newspaper industry is having a hard time competing with Craigslist because there is no way to compete. It’s easier to compete with your competitor who is also charging for the same service they are offering. With Craigslist, they are really not charging anything yet they are taking away the market for classified ads that newspapers desperately need.
Craigslist is a great site that millions of people visit everyday. Their rise made it easier for just about anybody to post an ad but this is devaluing the industry of classified ads. Newspaper should indeed find other ways or sources of revenue in order to survive the Internet generation.
The lawsuit that was filed by eBay Inc vs. Craigslist is now heading to the Delaware State courtroom and there will be a trial that would reveal the inner issues where eBay’s Meg Whitman and Craigslists’ Craig Newmark would be brought to the witness stand for their testimonies.
This trial had been delayed twice already. EBay and Craigslist are two giants of the internet industry. Ebay had pioneered the online auctions and generations over $8.5 billion in 2008 and has thousands of employees while Craigslist is a privately owned company with just a few employees and offers mostly free service for people who wants to buy and sell stuff using their online classifieds site.
Ebay’s April of last year’s law suit claims that Newmark and Jim Buckmaster had a “coercive plan” back in 2007 that decreased the percentage stake of eBay from 28.4 percent to 24.85% which falls below the 25% mark making them lose their seat on the board of Craigslist. The judge in the Delaware Chancery Court had dismissed two charges from eBay but five more counts are still in process including this case.
On the other hand, a month after eBay filed a case, Craigslist filed a separate lawsuit claiming that eBay have deceptive practices such as false advertising as well as trademark infringement. Craigslist claimed that eBay used their seat on their board to get information and launch their own website that is a competing site similar to Craigslist yet denying that it was eBay’s intention.
Last Monday, the Stores Magazine had released the list of the popular retail stores online and it’s the very first time that the Craigslist website was part of the top 50.
The poll is based on a survey where they ask 8,600 customers to elect the e-commerce stores that they prefer. The survey was not a multiple choice type but the 8,600 customers were to put the sites that came to their mind.
For the very first time out of the 3 years of the said poll, Craigslist was included and it’s on #25 out of 50. Not bad for a site that does not advertise itself and did not spend any amount of money to advertise their website.
For Craigslist to be among the top 50 retail sites online means that they come to mind often now. Not shocking now since Craigslist have over 50 million unique visitors last July and continues to get a higher number of visitors through the months and years that it’s been online.
Craigslist is gaining more grounds now especially with the bargain-hunting individuals who wants to look around for bargains and 2nd hand goods that are good enough for a purchase.
comScore’s new data revealed that the big 3 competitors namely Google, Yahoo and Microsoft had maintained their positions in terms of the activities in search sector where Google continues to be number 1, Yahoo 2nd and Microsoft just 3rd. But, with queries that start from April up to May, the online classified ad site Craigslist had grew 12% in search queries that grew from 583 million to 651 million queries.
Although Craigslist has had its share of controversies especially with their adult ads section, the site continues to gain an amazing growth in queries as well as in earnings. There are other sites according to comScore that also increased in searches such as Facebook with a 5% increase and YouTube with a 4% increase.
For this year, Craigslist is expected to be earning $100 million in their revenue which is higher by 23% compared to last year’s revenue. This is contrary to all the accusations and debates about Craigslist and the crimes that had transpired with connection to the online classified ads site. The $100 million revenue is the highest so far for Craigslist in the many years that they’ve been serving people online.
With the economy decline in many businesses and including other classified listings such as newspapers, Craigslist continues to expand and earn more during times of crisis particularly because of its job board. With many people logging in everyday in search of jobs, it’s no wonder why it’s gaining more this year comparatively so from last year and previous years. There are several small jobs being posted online and people visit Craigslist to find small jobs that they can do to pay the bills. The more they visit Craigslist, the more popular and higher revenue generating the online classified ads become.
With our bad economy where mortgages are soaring, many homeowners are looking for some renters just so they could pay off their bills. Plus, with many people losing their jobs, they can not pay off their mortgages and bills any longer which is why they seek for renters to occupy a portion of their house.
In Craigslist alone, the roommate posting has already increased nationally to about 70% making it at 476045 this January compared to just 279389 for January of last year.
It’s a win-win situation both for the renters and the homeowners. Those who can’t afford to rent their own house can just occupy a room and they pay less than what they would pay for an entire apartment or house. Homeowners would get a breather too and they can pay off their debts or at least go by during this very dark time.
Mortgages, electricity bills, water bills and many other monthly bills can definitely take its toll on anyone right now especially those who is one of the millions of Americans who already lost their jobs. At this time of trial, people are trying to make do with what they can afford. In Craigslist, many ads are posted for homeowners seeking for roommates and this will continue until everything stables down again.
Craigslist founder Craig Newmark was asked during an interview about what is in store for Craigslist in the future. Craig Newmark also talked about Craigslist and how he handles the huge site. He is the founder but he doesn’t manage it as he confessed to suck at managing. His CEO Jim Buckmaster is the one who manages and runs the site. Craig Newmark, on the other hand, is so concerned about his customer service that he reads every email sent to him and tries to send a reply to as many of them as possible. He also iterated that although the flagging system of Craigslist is flawed but it will stay that way because it uses the voting system which allows fellow users to flag it if they see it to be inappropriate. If an ad has been flagged several times, it is automatically deleted.
Craig Newmark answered questions about what is in store for Craigslist. To sum it all up, he said that there is no point in using client-side javascripts for Craigslist because people want it to be simple and fast. It doesn’t need to be fancy as it actually turns people off. Also, he has no plans about a mobile version as Craigslist already works well on smartphones.
So, pretty much Craigslist will stay as it is in the future. Of course we can’t say for certain but Craigslist is great just the way it is and people love it. Data shows that over 50 million unique visitors check Craigslist every month with over 13 billion page views!
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