PLATINUM PROFILE

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Craig Newmark has made a list
and millions are checking it twice.

BY GABRIELLA BURMAN

raig Newmark, the founder of craigslist.com , a "virtual flea market"
that is the world's fifth-largest Web site, drove through downtown
Royal Oak recently. On Main Street, he noticed lofts going up and
that his favorite futon store had closed.
"It's too built up now," he remarks privately later that evening, after addressing
a well-heeled crowd at the Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Art Museum, in a dis-
cussion sponsored by Wired Magazine.
The gentrification of the city, he continues, made him nostalgic for the decade
he had spent in Detroit before moving to San Francisco in 1992. Newmark had
come to Detroit, he says, "for a Jewish girlfriend," but while the relationship
didn't last, he was "happy to stay," and worked as a systems engineer for IBM,
while also supporting the downtown arts scene.
His visit to Cranbrook marked his first return to Detroit since leaving, and
gave craigslist users a rare opportunity to interact with the "Craig" behind the
domain name. Since its start in 1995 as an e-mail to 12 friends letting them
know about goings-on in San Francisco, that domain name has, largely by word
of mouth, grown into a company of 21 employees working out of a Victorian

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house in San Francisco, with revenue now estimated to be about $25 million a
Year.
Most in the audience came away delighted. At 53, Newmark, a self-described
computer nerd, is well read, self-effacing and funny. He downplays the glamour
and considerable celebrity associated with being the guiding force — and moral
compass — behind craigslist. "I feel good about starting it. I wanted to be help-
ful. But the people are more important than I am," he says.
The "people" is a community of 10 million users in all 50 states plus 35 coun-
tries who visit the Web site to buy, sell or give away anything from furniture to
flea collars to freelance employment. Until 1998, all posting of items was free;
now employers are charged nominal fees for posting jobs in San Francisco, Los
Angeles and New York City, and New York real-estate brokers are charged for
posting apartments for sale or rent. The Web site, which is constantly updated, is
categorized by city to facilitate ease of use.
Additionally, 40 million users post in discussion forums on more than 80 top-
ics, ranging from pet breeding to politics, and Newmark, whose "gig" is customer
service, as he puts it, spends his days monitoring bickering, chasing down scam

Craigslist, founded by Craig Newmark (above), began as an e-mail to 12 friends about happenings in San Francisco.

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