The New York Times > Technology > EBay Buys 25% Stake in Craigslist, an Online Bulletin Board

The New York Times > Technology > EBay Buys 25% Stake in Craigslist, an Online Bulletin Board "For its part, craigslist hopes its alliance with eBay will provide better strategies to deal with fraud and other challenges in the online world, its executives said. Founded in 1995, craigslist, based in San Francisco, has grown steadily to serve users in 45 cities, mostly in the United States, but also in London and three cities in Canada. The company said it had been profitable since 1999.
In July, craigslist estimated that it had 5.3 million visitors, up from around 3.6 million in July 2003. Craigslist, which has 14 employees, has had trouble coping with threats from classified advertising scam artists and spammers, according to company executives.
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Craig Newmark, the founder of craigslist who now takes the title "customer service representative," said that eBay's stake would not affect the character of the site. Rather, he said, he would be able to continue to focus on building the operation, while spending less time dealing with scammers and spammers."