History of Backpage

Backpage was a really popular site during the years it was operating but it is safe to say that it became even more notorious after its seizure. The reason for that is the accusations that were made against it and the severity of its punishment. It is safe to say that Backpage gained a big amount of post-mortem fame due to those facts. Here we will try to explain a little about its history so you can understand how BP ended up the way it did.
The website was launched in 2004 as a free classified ads electronic platform, much like its predecessor Craiglist. The dawn of the new millennium was the turning point of the internet as more and more people turned from newspapers to websites in order to find what they were looking for. There was much space for growth in that environment and the Backpage developers knew that. While it did well the first years of its operations it was still a moderate platform among the rest of its niche. Everyone was after CLs success but none had managed to duplicate it.
The chance for Backpage came in 2010 when Craigslist decided to shut down its adult services section and a big field was left free for exploitation. The cunning developing team of Backpage soon rose up to the task and took over the adult services advertisement market. In the beginning, those ads were free but after a while, Backpage began to charge for those. People continued to post and use them even though they had to pay a fee to post their ad now.
The number of users was so big that Backpage made more than $100 in revenue per year from that section alone. As you can understand the general income of the platform was sky-rocketed to the stratosphere.
For several years, Backpage was the safe heaven all of those who were willing to have sex for money and those that were willing to pay for that. As everyone knows prostitution is illegal in almost all of U.S. and a website like that was certain that it would draw the attention of federal authorities.
This happened in 2017 when some accusations about underage prostitution ads were made and the federal government was forced to take action. After only a few months in 2018, Backpage was shut down completely. Even though Backpage officials made an effort to alter its profile by suspending its adult listings, the prostitutes continued to post their ads in various sections such as "massage" or "women seeking men", etc.
On April 6, 2018, the website was seized by the federal government and hundreds of arrests were made. If you try to enter Backpage now you will be notified about the seizure and you won't be able to see its contents. It is highly impossible that it will ever be back it but it is almost certain that sooner or later someone else will fill its gap since wherever there is demand there will always be someone able and willing to supply and make money out of it.