New Improved Craigslist, Now Even Less Seedy

The Wall Street Journal et al, Thursday, December 23, 2010 1:20 PM

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What lies at the seedy intersection of the sex trade and online media? Craigslist, of course -- or at least it did. Under pressure from several state's attorneys general and law enforcement officials, the classifieds site has officially shuttered its "adult services" section worldwide.

"This worldwide shutdown of the erotic services sections on Craigslist is a victory in the fight against sexual exploitation of women and children and human trafficking connected to prostitution," Connecticut attorney general Richard Blumenthal said in a statement cited by The Wall Street Journal.

"Evidently, it's hard for companies that want to be recognized as legitimate to have any kind of association with something unsavory," writes VentureBeat.

And while most news outlets are focusing on similar legal and ethical issues, there's also the little matter of lost revenue.

How much? Oh, about a third of the company's total revenue, according to estimates cited by paidContent. "The adult services ads, which had cost $10 each to post in the U.S., were a significant portion of the company's revenue -- almost $45 million of the $122 million in [worldwide] revenue the company would have made this year."

Regarding what was once called "Erotic Services" on Craigslist, Mashable put estimates closer to $36 million in revenue.

Craigslist originally removed adult services ads in the United States on September 3 following months of pressure.

At the time, writes Agence France Presse, "Craigslist said it was being made a scapegoat and stressed its efforts to pre-screen all submissions and work with state law enforcement and advocacy groups."

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0 comments on "New Improved Craigslist, Now Even Less Seedy".

1. Jerry Foster from Energraphics
   

   commented on: December 24, 2010 at 9:30 a.m.

   Radical Christian Feminism is nothing to be proud of in the land of the supposed free. Where the meeting of the far left (exploitation of women? the erotic industry exploits men) meets the far right (we don't want our husbands to have options), freedom takes a back seat.

   But this is not big deal because corporate valuations are related to the stigma factor. Craigslist probably wants to be bought out by a larger corporation and needs to clean this stigma stuff up.

   In the late 90s, many dating sites like Kiss or Match found themselves looking at their Wall Street valuations and were directly told by financiers to downplay or block the foreign women wanting to meet American men.

   Feminism has control over the valuations of American companies (regardless of their revenue potential).

   For those innocent dating sites, American women were not amused that American men had options elsewhere (the Internet and low airfares brought unwelcome competition to the local market).

   When millions of men spent their money on dating sites that didn't care about their Wall Street valuations (and not on major dating sites like Match or eHarmony) these companies lobbied Congress to regulate "rogue dating sites" by background checking American men who want to communicate with foreign women (the IMBRA law which isn't being complied with because men refuse to do so).

   Now I can't see why men would use Craigslist for its "seedy" ads at least because who in their right mind would deal with people sight unseen like that?

   But I'm still not impressed that a bunch of old ladies and their White Knight husbands with knee pads "scored a victory" like this in the supposed land of the free.

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