Craigslist thoughts

[Yanks_Todd]

I am totally against the move, but I also believe it didn't have to come to this. CL is a pretty under-optimized site/company who really could have thought their way to a better solution.

[MetaMan]

Whats the 411?

[Yanks_Todd]

Whats the 411?

CL dropped all adult listings in the US

[Amputate Your Head]

Whats the 411?

[AaronM]

Whats the 411?

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-20014641-38.html

[Barry-xlovecam]

[It] was not immediately clear whether Craigslist removed the adult services and replaced them with the "censored" section that had a link that was not active. But for users who accessed the account outside the U.S., the erotic services link was still active.

Craigslist representatives were not immediately available for comment.

The website has been under fire for allegations that it promotes prostitution. ...


CENSORED!

Using GEO-IP to filter out the content? Interesting idea ...

[beemk]

thats kind of stupid. like the hookers are going to say "wow i cant post on craigslist, i think ill stop fucking for money". girls have been fucking for money as long as they have had vaginas. they will just find another site or hit the street corners.

[Yanks_Todd]

thats kind of stupid. like the hookers are going to say "wow i cant post on craigslist, i think ill stop fucking for money". girls have been fucking for money as long as they have had vaginas. they will just find another site or hit the street corners.

I totally disagree. With this move, prostitution will end. I guarantee all those girls are scrambling to find a school to enroll in or an honest Jesus approved trade to learn.

Its a given. Next up is to remove drug references from movies and that problem will be gone as well.

[beemk]

I totally disagree. With this move, prostitution will end. I guarantee all those girls are scrambling to find a school to enroll in or an honest Jesus approved trade to learn.

Its a given. Next up is to remove drug references from movies and that problem will be gone as well.

[Grapesoda]

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-20014641-38.html

I wonder how the politicos always seem to find child trafficing everywhere? *wink wink*

[TurboAngel]

I think it's bull shit.

[DateDoc]

they will just up their posts on backpage & cityvibe or may go upscale and actually pay eros.

[messiah1]

Oh well, got other options like fling, POF and Yahoo Personals

[sweetcuties]

Alot of content guys get talent from CL, this make it harder to get new talent

[sweetcuties]

Google "cl adult" a bunch of interesting sites come up

http://techcrunch.com/2010/09/03/cra...on-comes-down/

[jackknoff]

craigslist was no worse than your local classifieds. That shit got blown way out of proportion. The U.S. is one of the few industrialized nations where prostitution is illegal. It's frakin retarded.


Spanx!
Jack

[DatingGold]

How am I gonna get laid now?

[ShellyCrash]

I am totally against the move, but I also believe it didn't have to come to this. CL is a pretty under-optimized site/company who really could have thought their way to a better solution.

Yeah, CL is one of those sites that could monetize so much more of their traffic than they do it makes me nauseous just thinking about it. They just needed to pro-actively moderate the content, which they could have easily paid for the man hours by doing something simple like adding premium job listings for a few more major metros that they currently list for free. Such a shame.

[ShellyCrash]

craigslist was no worse than your local classifieds. That shit got blown way out of proportion.

I think the issue was the adult ads weren't being precreened and instead of using creative language like you would see in the back pages you had posts that pretty much spelled it out. Everything in classifieds is pre-screened and edited before going to print, so you don't run into the same issues.

A printed publication isn't going to run an ad where a girl states she's under 18 and looking to exchange $$ for sex, where as CL would post the ad and only pull the content if they received user complaints. The process of post going live, report being filed by user, CL employees researching and pulling content exposed the company to alot of risk that IMO could have been somewhat avoided.

[Slutboat]

Yeah, CL is one of those sites that could monetize so much more of their traffic than they do it makes me nauseous just thinking about it. They just needed to pro-actively moderate the content, which they could have easily paid for the man hours by doing something simple like adding premium job listings for a few more major metros that they currently list for free. Such a shame.

Um ok? They made 21 million on apt ads in just ONE city last year (NYC)
that's the coolest thing about craigslist they know they could make a lot more money and they don't give a fuck, they keep it real

[Axzar]

Twitter is the new Craigslist for Escorts. Need help with auto-posting from the Twitter API? I can help. http://escortwebsites.biz/blog/escor...-seo-services/

[NinjaSteve]

Twitter is the new Craigslist for Escorts. Need help with auto-posting from the Twitter API? I can help. http://escortwebsites.biz/blog/escor...-seo-services/

Now that's an interesting concept. #hookers

[icymelon]

it really upsets me freedome of speech and all

[ShellyCrash]

Um ok? They made 21 million on apt ads in just ONE city last year (NYC)
that's the coolest thing about craigslist they know they could make a lot more money and they don't give a fuck, they keep it real

That's my point, they could make alot more money just by adding premium listings to a few more metro areas. Doing this would give them additional multi million dollar streams of revenue w/o damaging the integrity of the company and keeping the majority of their services free... but they don't.

I know a swing site owner that's about to lose his house because he'd rather "keep it real" than keep it profitable. Shit is rediculous.

[Slutboat]

That's my point, they could make alot more money just by adding premium listings to a few more metro areas. Doing this would give them additional multi million dollar streams of revenue w/o damaging the integrity of the company and keeping the majority of their services free... but they don't.

I know a swing site owner that's about to lose his house because he'd rather "keep it real" than keep it profitable. Shit is rediculous.

I know a billionaire, he's incredibly bored with anyone who comes to him with money making ideas. I imagine CL has a criteria for charging a city for Apt. ads that has something to do with how well that city is doing financially. CL is run like a non-profit and has never been about making money, it's as much a public service as it is a profit machine. Which is what makes it far more dissapointing that they had to cave the the pressure of these asshole AG's.

But it's fun to imagine what could be done with a little of that traffic. I bet you could make a million dollars a day with a single rotating banner. But when you have a site worth 5 billion dollars who worrys about pocket change.

[ShellyCrash]

I know a billionaire, he's incredibly bored with anyone who comes to him with money making ideas. I imagine CL has a criteria for charging a city for Apt. ads that has something to do with how well that city is doing financially. CL is run like a non-profit and has never been about making money, it's as much a public service as it is a profit machine. Which is what makes it far more dissapointing that they had to cave the the pressure of these asshole AG's.

But it's fun to imagine what could be done with a little of that traffic. I bet you could make a million dollars a day with a single rotating banner. But when you have a site worth 5 billion dollars who worrys about pocket change.

But CL isn't making billions of dollars, and it's not worth billions of dollars either.

I just don't understand praising that kind of thinking. If you want to praise them for not making money and look at them like a "Robin Hood" of the internet, I guess you could, I just don't subscribe to that way of thinking. I mean, we're all here to make money, right?

The claim put forth that CL was worth 5 billion was made in early 2008 and pretty much was shot down by ValleyWag as soon as it was made - http://valleywag.gawker.com/375850/i...orth-5-billion

Bad estimates and even worse math. The days of huge traffic websites being worth "a billion dollars" based more off potential to generate revenue rather than already generating the massive revenue dollars that would support the valuation are pretty much over. No one's buying companys at 10X earnings anymore.

What's happening with CL reminds me alot of how things hapened with FaceBook. I'm sure CL has a lot less overhead, but to cut to the core of it they are both run by people who at one time touted people and principals over profit. Facebook has been making a pretty sharp 180 on that over the past year. 3 or 4 years ago you would have never imagined FaceBook would be using your avatar and name in 3rd party ads to try and sell things to your friends list. Will be interesting to see if the day will come when CL follows suit.

[Slutboat]

No we're not all here to make money, wrong.

[Slutboat]

I wasn't able to load valleywag... what did it valuate CL at? I highly doubt anyone would say less than 3B. The 5B was an estimate that assumed that CL would stay ad free, I don't see the bad math.

And assuming CL is going to start selling their ass like facebook is like saying Mother Theresa is going to start selling crack. You're trippin girl.

[Horny Dude]

They even removed the Adult Gigs section from the US listings. This does nothing but moves them into another section. They'll start posting in the Casual Encounters area or Massage section, which they were already doing. How come they don't go after Backpage.com? They have ads on there that are even worse, photos and phone numbers all in the ad. At least on CL you only got to post one small photo. This just gives the lawyers and groups a chance to pat themselves on the back. Would be funny if they turned the hooker section back on after the weekend.

[Slutboat]

They even removed the Adult Gigs section from the US listings. This does nothing but moves them into another section. They'll start posting in the Casual Encounters area or Massage section, which they were already doing. How come they don't go after Backpage.com? They have ads on there that are even worse, photos and phone numbers all in the ad. At least on CL you only got to post one small photo. This just gives the lawyers and groups a chance to pat themselves on the back. Would be funny if they turned the hooker section back on after the weekend.

All true but I don't think the hooker ads are coming back anytime soon. I'm fairly sure the letter from the AG's was to notify CL that they were going to prosecute.

Far more than patting each other on the back this gives them the power of precedent to now go after backpage and others... next stop the porn industry.

extremely disturbing shit

[ShellyCrash]

No we're not all here to make money, wrong.

Not trying to be a dick, but am wondering if you're not here to make money, why are you here?

Here is the meat and potatoes from the ValleyWag article:

Disgraced stock analyst Henry Blodget pauses to dream up a fantasy valuation for Craigslist, and comes up with $5 billion. The numbers he relies on are faulty, starting with Craigslist's revenues. Blodget relies on a recent report by Classified Intelligence, which pegs its revenues for 2008 at an estimated $81 million. That's extremely low; insiders tell me the real figure for last year was in the range of $100 million to $150 million.

Blodget's costs, too, are off base. He estimates per-employee labor costs at $125,000, reasoning that founder Craig Newmark and CEO Jim Buckmaster run things "like a nonprofit." Try "like a prison camp," Hank; Newmark and Buckmaster pay ludicrously low salaries and don't offer any equity, having learned from their (highly profitable) mistake in issuing shares to an early employee. True labor costs are more likely in the range of $4 million to $5 million. A commenter on Blodget's post revises his estimate of bandwidth and server costs down from $50 million a year to a more realistic $7.5 million. That gives you a business with something like 90 percent profit margins. Where does the money go? Not to the Craigslist Foundation, by and large. Mostly straight into Newmark and Buckmaster's pockets, from what we understand.

Also keep in mind both these articles are from early 08, before things went to shit. In today's market you're lucky to get a 5x EBITA asking price for a business, let alone 10x or greater like that wingnut was saying.

IMO a business is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. Factor in the current state of the economy with the added dissapointing returns on the majority of the large multi-million dollar dot com aquisitions- not to mention the controversy over the product- no one's going pick this up in the billion dollar range.

[will76]

I totally disagree. With this move, prostitution will end. I guarantee all those girls are scrambling to find a school to enroll in or an honest Jesus approved trade to learn.

Its a given. Next up is to remove drug references from movies and that problem will be gone as well.

no but some of the girls will be back out on the streets now... so the public will bitch and wish the girls were pimping online again vs the street.

[Slutboat]

Not trying to be a dick, but am wondering if you're not here to make money, why are you here?

Here is the meat and potatoes from the ValleyWag article:



Also keep in mind both these articles are from early 08, before things went to shit. In today's market you're lucky to get a 5x EBITA asking price for a business, let alone 10x or greater like that wingnut was saying.

IMO a business is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. Factor in the current state of the economy with the added dissapointing returns on the majority of the large multi-million dollar dot com aquisitions- not to mention the controversy over the product- no one's going pick this up in the billion dollar range.

wow you seemed like a smart lady until this last post... you are a tripper who just loves to hear yourself talk arncha? CL is worth several B and that's fact not bizzaar conjecture like your ramblings... stick to your day job miss Shelly

[BFT3K]

I don't think the govt can legally force CL to comply.

I bet the ads are back within a week.

It's called Freedom Of Speech.

[ShellyCrash]

CL is worth several B and that's fact not bizzaar conjecture like your ramblings... stick to your day job miss Shelly

One Billion Dollars!

You're getting your data from an article written over two and a half years ago by someone who was running bad numbers, yet I'm the one who's supplying "bizzaar conjecture"?

Just trying to bring a little reality to the table, sorry. Carry on.