Encounterslist fills the void left by the recent shutdown of Craigslist Adult Services, according to co-founders Eli Grey and Marcelo Fuentes.
The entrepreneurs said they have long believed adult services and casual encounters classifieds need to be in their own secure, well-organized adult-only environment.
"Both Marcelo and I have worked behind the scenes in the internet industry for more than 15 years. We are receiving close to 3,000 hits per day and I expect that to hit around 15,000 to 20,000 hits daily in the coming weeks. The site is catching on quickly. Obviously there is some competition out there, but we are unique in that this is an adults only classified site," Grey said.
He added, “We began development of this months ago, putting into place safeguards from the start to combat misuse – safeguards like the latest in L.E.R.D.S. Protection," Grey said.
The webmaster explained that L.E.R.D.S is a company that reviews and weeds out suspicious posts.
"I believe it stands for Law Enforcement Review Dashboard Systems. We called on them to help make sure we provide a good service to adults without being a facilitator of any crime as Craigslist was accused of so often."
He added, “We never expected Craigslist to shut down the section. While we long expected changes in their site, Craigslist shocked us in self-censoring. We applaud their move as a brilliant statement on free speech in America and an unfortunate turn of events for the nation's rights.”
The site currently lists six cities: Los Angeles; San Francisco; San Diego; New York; Las Vegas and Philadelphia and is currently offering free postings in celebration of its launch.
Although the site currently offers only an adult services section, the company said it will soon launch a casual encounters section to offers its users extensive functionality.