If you needed a mover, a nanny or a room to rent in a Chinese city in 2013, you probably looked on 58.com. It was the largest online marketplace for local merchants and consumers in China, a home for classified ads much like Craigslist. Jinbo Yao started it in Beijing in 2005. When it filed to go public, the company was already profitable and had offices in 27 Chinese cities.

Craigslist, With Salespeople

58.com's bet was that China's small local businesses would pay to be found online. Listings for jobs, homes, cars and household services were free to browse. Merchants paid for memberships and for ads that put their listings near the top. Unlike Craigslist, 58.com built a large sales force to sign up those merchants city by city. In the quarter before its IPO it earned $8.5 million.

Merged, Then Taken Private

58.com priced its ADSs at $17 in October 2013 and listed on the New York Stock Exchange as WUBA. The stock jumped on its first day. Tencent bought a large stake in 2014. In 2015 58.com took control of its biggest rival, Ganji, and became the clear leader in Chinese classifieds. A group led by Warburg Pincus took the company private in September 2020.

Cover: Physic Street, Canton, John Thomson. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a crowded street of shop signs (local listings).