Now that Craigslist has globally shut down its “adult services” section, there are a lot of prostitutes out there all undressed with nowhere to go. So where have they been advertising? In part on Backpage.com, the online classified home run by Village Voice Media. According to the Observer, Backpage is being targeted by the same lawyers and advocacy groups that convinced Craigslist to shut down their own adult classifieds. While VVM has asked for the case to be dismissed, they have noticed an uptick in traffic since Craigslist shut down its version — over a half a million uniques a month, in fact. That’s more than a fifth of their previous traffic, and apparently in the New York region their numbers have actually tripled. Still, worldwide it’s a mere sliver of the traffic that Craigslist’s adult-services sections enjoyed. So where are all those sex workers advertising? Or maybe they’ve just gone back to more traditional haunts. Has anyone checked the traffic of www.whorepresents.com lately?
With Craigslist Out, Village Voice Media Now No. 1 for Adult Classifieds [NYO]
