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COVER STORY
Craig Newmark
Newmark has managed to create a hugely successful busi- As regards how Newmark spends his time with Craigslist, his
ness with a website whose design is stuck in the Nineties. On focus is firmly on customer service and he seems genuinely to
top of this, he claims to steer clear of a conscious marketing avoid anything to do with the sales or financial side of the
strategy of any kind and has an attitude to expansion that is company. In fact he mentions that he answers quite a lot of
quite relaxed: he doesn’t really mind if it takes 20 years or so for emails from the community himself.
Craigslist to catch on in Europe. After our interview he says he would most likely be back
Besides which he says that his leadership skills have in the online answering emails within an hour of our conversation. He’s
past been labeled ‘crappy’. a hard worker and no mistake but he openly states that the
Does this sound like a site you’d want to advertise on? Well, decision-making is left to Jim Buckmaster, a guy who joined the
before you politely turn it down you should be so lucky because company as a programmer and is now CEO, in charge of all of
Craigslist never has and never will take any banner ads. the business decisions.
Back when the site was beginning to take off, Microsoft He says of the success of Craigslist: “It’s all very surreal. I have
approached him about placing banner ads that Newmark never gotten used to it. I don’t want to because you have to stay
admits would have comfortably paid for his living expenses for committed and hungry and that’s why I no longer manage.
quite a while, but he declined. He doesn’t like the way they look: “In the beginning it was just me. I ran it as a hobby from 1995
“Most of them are kinda dumb.” to 1997. In 1998 I attempted to run it on a volunteer basis but
Site members, by the way, can use Craigslist for free. It costs that didn’t work so in 1999 I made it into a company.”
nothing to place an ad up there unless you’re placing a paid job Newmark is quick to point out that he’s not even the chief
listing or you are an apartment broker. customer sales rep nor head of the department. He just deals
with people.
Community service
Newmark says that Craigslist is not so much a business as an
A customer-centric strategy
online community service and the man is committed to commu-
Ask Newmark about a marketing strategy for Craigslist and he
nity. It’s a recurring theme in his life’s work and while he will
doesn’t scowl or guffaw – he simply smiles serenely before
pleasantly discuss most things about Craigslist he’s already
politely informing me that there is none. While Newmark may
looking to a role in shaping online democracy.
well believe this, many would argue that putting customer serv-
“I’ll speak about Craigslist’s culture, history and values but
ice, community and values at the heart of the business is the
right now I seem to have taken on more of a public service mis-
ultimate marketing strategy.
sion; there are a lot of good things happening in a lot of good
This same question is more or less revisited at the Dublin Web
places which people don’t notice.
Summit where Newmark fields questions from an Irish audience.
“In Washington ordinary government workers are re-inventing
Someone asks him why Craigslist has never made it big in
government from the inside out and the bottom up and people
Europe. It’s a fair question – Craigslist is a mega site that is reg-
aren’t noticing, but at the very least I can notice so hopefully a
ularly referenced in Hollywood movies and has become a part of
few more people can hear about it, and that’s a good way to
the 21st-century American zeitgeist but has never been that big
spend someone’s time.”
a deal in Europe. Compare this with the likes of Google, eBay,
22 Marketing Age Volume 4 Issue 1 2010
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