This incident went by on a few mailing lists I am on. The CEO of Craigslist talking to "Wall Street types " who were "Confused capitalists wondering how a company can exist without the urge to maximize profits." (ZDNet)
From the NYTimes:
Mr. Buckmaster took questions from the bemused audience, which apparently could not get its collective mind around the notion that Craigslist exists to help Web users find jobs, cars, apartments and dates — and not so much to make money.
Wendy Davis of MediaPost describes the presentation as a “a culture clash of near-epic proportions.” She recounts how UBS analyst Ben Schachter wanted to know how Craigslist plans to maximize revenue. It doesn’t, Mr. Buckmaster replied (perhaps wondering how Mr. Schachter could possibly not already know this). “That definitely is not part of the equation,” he said, according to MediaPost. “It’s not part of the goal.”
“I think a lot of people are catching their breath right now,” Mr. Schachter said in response.
From ZDNet:
On text ads: Buckmaster, who says he's only taken one economic course in his life, reiterated that the company "is not trying to maximize revenue." Although Craigslist has been approached by the likes of Google and Yahoo about deploying text ads the decision comes back to what's best for users, says Buckmaster.
"No users have been requesting we run text ads so that's the end of the story," says Buckmaster.
From NYTimes:
Following the meeting, Mr. Schachter wrote a research note, flagged by Tech Trader Daily, which suggests that he still doesn’t quite get the concept of serving customers first, and worrying about revenues later, if at all (and nevermind profits). Craigslist, the analyst wrote, “does not fully monetize its traffic or services.”
Related posts:
Unconference.net
