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Jim Buckmaster: The Lure of Craigslist -- Open Source Technology, a Simple Business Model, and Lots of Customer Feedback
This is from the April 22nd update at Enterprise Leadership.
Jim Buckmaster
CEO of Craigslist
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When it comes to looking for a job, an apartment, or even a good garage sale, more than 26 million unique visitors each month turn to a Craigslist.com site in one of 450 cities in 50 countries. No one can dispute the cult-like reputation that Craigslist, founded by Craig Newmark, has earned. As a company, Craigslist runs frugal with 25 employees working out of an old Victorian building in San Francisco. However, Craigslist has proven that even a well-meaning, grassroots bunch of nerds can put a big dent in the advertising profits earmarked for thousands of newspapers. Let's not forget how Craigslist, which is 25-percent owned by eBay, has changed the way many of us live and work.
So how did Craigslist, which started as Newmark's idea for a San Francisco events list 12 years, come this far? Why would a company that could be making hundreds of millions of dollars each year continue to offer a primarily free service? What drives Craigslist's quirky form of innovation and culture? These are some of the things enterpriseleadership.org asked Jim Buckmaster, Craigslist CEO. Since 2000, Buckmaster has led Craigslist to be the most-used classifieds in any medium, and one of the world's most popular Web sites.
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