Craigslist makes debut in Spokane

Spokane Internet users can now look for dates or hunt for apartments using a local version of the popular community Web site Craigslist.org.

The nationwide Web site has added a Spokane section to its online collection of mostly free classified advertisements.

Created in 1995 in San Francisco, Craigslist now has special sections serving 75 U.S. and overseas cities, said company CEO Jim Buckmaster.

Spokane was added in mid-November. The site — http://spokane.craigslist.org/— currently has more than 300 classified ads featuring items for sale, plus 35 jobs-wanted listings. The entire site includes discussion groups, personal ads and real estate and housing want-ads.

The primary factor that led Craigslist to add Spokane was “the demand of our users. We’ve had enough requests and postings by users saying they wanted the service,” Buckmaster said in an interview.

It also helped that Spokane has a significant number of college students, who tend to be among the site’s most regular users.

The only ads on the entire site that are not free are job listings posted in Los Angeles and New York City. Buckmaster said the privately held company is considering charging revenue for ads in Boston in 2005. The 14-person firm is also considering adding a Spanish-language option for U.S. users in the coming year. That would require hiring additional staff, he said.

Craigslist’s services have attracted more than 6 million visitors a month to the site, said Buckmaster. Craigslist now handles about 3 million new classified ads a month, including 75,000 job listings each month, said Buckmaster.

Craigslist forums alone generate about 1 million postings each month, the company’s managers have determined.

Buckmaster said the company does not disclose its financials. “We’ve been in the black since 1999,” he added.

Earlier this year, Craigslist sold a 25 percent stake to eBay, the online auction site. Terms of that deal were also not disclosed.

The idea of eBay buying a share made sense after eBay executives made it clear they wouldn’t ask Craigslist to change its focus, Buckmaster said.