Craigslist needs to Clean Up its Act

The popular magazine Wired, has written an article on the tragedy of Craigslist and how a site which almost a fifth of American adults visit every month has become such a mess. The showcase of Craigslist's problems is of course their personals category. Unfortunately the majority of personal ads are either fake or scams with some estimates as high as 84% (see Story). A large number of these personal ads are written by sex workers which has landed Craigslist in legal troubles and being called one of the largest sources of prostitution in America (see Story). The news stories about the "Craigslist Killers" also have not helped matters either for the internet classifieds company (see Story). Other categories on the site have similar problems with fake ads, including the jobs and apartment hunting categories.

A major part of Craigslist success is that it is mostly free, this is also part of the problem as anyone can post an ad with very little editorial review. Most of Craigslist money is made through apartment listings and some job ads. Lately the personals category, Adult Services went paid to in part pay for editors to review any ads in this section before being posted. Craigslist is a privately held company owned by Craig Newmark. No real information has been released about their financials but a few firms have estimated that Craigslist's paid ads revenue could reach $100 million for this year.

For the full article and to find out how it all began for Craigslist, read Wired. To find out more about Craigslist personals dating category read our review.