|
|
May 11, 2007
International online success
Founder of Craigslist to speak in Vancouver at JFSA event.
BAILA LAZARUS
Craig Newmark will soon be off to Israel for the first time. The
creator of Craigslist.com is finally able to indulge an interest
in travel and history, but it's not primarily of the vacation variety.
Newmark will be speaking at a business conference focusing on the
Internet. It's part of a public persona he carries these days, stemming
from the fact that everyone wants to know how he parlayed a benign
e-mail to friends into a multimillion-dollar international website.
That celebrity status brings the subdued and dry-witted Newmark
to Vancouver to speak at the Jewish Family Service Agency (JFSA)
Innovators Lunch on May 17. It also keeps him averaging about two
interviews a week. And although he never set out to garner fame
for his Internet skills, he recognizes the value his website now
has in people's lives.
"Overall, [what's fulfilling is] the sense we're helping out
people by the millions," said Newmark in a phone interview
from New York. "Our help is of the mundane sort, like finding
someone a job or a place to live. But the mundane stuff is what
matters in people's lives."
Servicing more than 100 cities in more than 50 countries, Craigslist.com
is the place to visit for everything from trading baseball
cards to finding your soulmate.
Right now, for example, you can rent a three-bedroom apartment in
the Carmel area of Haifa for $620 US, you can find legal work in
Montreal with an ecological investment company that does reforestation
in Costa Rica, and you can buy a 45-foot sailboat, currently moored
in Waikiki, for $22,000.
The information is readily available because, about 12 years ago,
Newmark decided to distribute a listing of events to his friends.
The topics grew, and people kept asking for more information. It
eventually made its way into a website named after the way his friends
referred to his e-mails: "Craig's list."
What keeps Craigslist popular, and what can't be said for a lot
of other service-oriented sites, is the fact that it's free and
it lacks annoying advertising. It has also created a sense of community
through its simple user interface and six dozen discussion forums
on topics ranging from atheism to motorcycles to veganism. As well,
the company is not run by any large conglomerates – although
a former partner sold a 25 per cent stake to eBay.
Fees to cover the running costs of the site and the salaries of
its dozen or so employees are derived from charges for posts by
employment recruiters, realtors and apartment brokers.
An East Coast (New Jersey) Jewish boy, Newmark now resides in California
with a "significant other." He went to a Jewish afternoon
school growing up and describes himself as secular, incorporating
the values and tenets of Judaism in practice, if not in formal religious
structure. For example, he points to the subject of tikkun olam
(repairing the word) and sees his listings service as being one
way he can "give back," helping millions of people a day
find what they need.
Voted one of Time magazine's most influential people of 2005,
Newmark still focuses on customer service for Craigslist, doing
some administration of discussion groups, as well as trying to clean
up the constant presence of spammers and scammers. He has a particular
dislike of New York-based apartment brokers who reel buyers in promising
"no extra fees," and then add on extra charges as the
buyers are getting ready to sign.
While not someone who pursues fame ("My threshold for attention
is lower than I thought," he said), Newmark recognizes that
his success allows him to publicize other causes in which he is
slowly becoming interested.
"People listen to what I have to say, so I can use that to
promote the efforts of people doing something good," said Newmark,
adding that he's still feeling his way around when it comes to issues
he'd like to promote.
One area, not surprisingly, is that of journalism and the media,
in which he's learning about the industry and how it's changing.
He pointed to the decrease in the number of investigative reporters
in the United States as being a concern, as employers try to increase
profit margins.
He's also involved with the Mideast peace group One Voice –
a collective of moderates looking for compromise, according to Newmark.
He didn't have plans to meet with One Voice in Israel, but he said
he had a feeling, "There will be a lot of surprises."
Baila Lazarus is a freelance writer, photographer and
illustrator living in Vancouver. Her work can be seen at www.orchiddesigns.net.
^TOP
|
|
