社情说 | 天才广告分类家 Meet Marik from China Classifieds

“如果对社会有贡献，我很乐意这样做”。这个说法很有Marik的风格，他为人真诚，乐于助人，活跃在创业舞台，不仅发展自己的事业，还帮助其他企业家发展生意。 他来自乌克兰，已在中国工作六年，前两年在石家庄。

“If it contributes to the community, I’m happy to do it”. This statement is very Marik. He’s a genuine guy who’s always willing to help others out. He’s a familiar face on the startup scene, not only growing his own business but also helping others entrepreneurs grow theirs. Marik hails from Ukraine, and has been in China for six years, having spent his first two years in the industrial city of Shijiazhuang.  

“裸心社这个应用程序真是棒极了，它就像是一个巨大的广告牌，在这上面我可以接触到每个人。”Marik认为共享经济是未来的一大趋势。他热切地谈论着生活方式和商业融为一体的路线，他认为裸心社是个非常棒地方，能够分享资源，分享想法和社交活动。他特别喜欢这个社区氛围和各种活动，比如，电影之夜，瑜伽课程和派对。

“The naked Hub app is fantastic - it"s like a huge noticeboard from where I can reach out to everyone”. Marik sees the sharing economy as the future. He talks passionately about the blurring lines of lifestyle and business, and he sees naked Hub as the perfect place for that; with its sharing of resources, sharing of ideas and social events. He’s particularly appreciative of the community atmosphere and events; the movie nights, the yoga sessions and the parties.

因为没有可靠的英语分类广告，Marik感受到在华生活的种种不便。身为一个传统企业家，看到市场机会当然不能放过。他创办了“天类”（China Classifieds），业务范围从免费分类广告扩大到主办活动，成为一个媒体平台。

Marik is a classic entrepreneur; he saw a gap in the market and filled it. Frustrated by the lack of a reliable English language listings service, he created China Classifieds, which has since broadened its brief from free listings, to also hosting events and being a media platform. 

“分类网站速度很慢，全是垃圾邮件，缺少客户服务。” Marik发现中国没有专门的英文分类广告服务。像Craigslist这样的网站没人管理，当然也没有针对中国小城市的服务。“中国分类”的团队和基础设施都是基于本地的，即网站的读取时间是即时的，客户服务响应快速，覆盖中国数个城市。

“Listings sites were slow, full of spam, and lacking in customer service” Marik found there were no dedicated English language listings services in China. Sites like Craigslist weren’t moderated, and certainly didn’t target smaller cities in China. The China Classifieds team and infrastructure is all locally based, meaning website loading times are immediate, and customer service response time is fast, and several Chinese cities are served.

“所有企业都要面对的挑战就是获取用户”。Marik开始在微信上创建住房和工作组，并将流量引导到他的网站。但他很快意识到，只通过网络是不够的，他们需要做的是通过各种活动，在外国人社区增加曝光。活动对拉新非常有用,也大大拓展了他的社交网络。

“For any business, the challenge is user acquisition”. Marik started by creating housing and job groups on WeChat and directing traffic toward his website. But he quickly realised that being online wasn’t enough, they needed to do events to be a relevant and visible presence in the international community. Events have been great for adding numbers to the database, and widening his network.

“Eventbank是我们最伟大的工具。” “天类”必须安全、方便地管理成千上万的人的信息。为此，他使用Eventbank，便于事件管理，电邮营销，支付和客户关系管理。他也见识到了了领英的巨大成功和高活跃度，并认为这一工具在中国还未得以充分利用。

“Eventbank is our greatest tool” China Classifieds has to manage thousands of people’s information securely and conveniently, and he uses Eventbank for this, which helps with event management, email marketing, payment and CRM. He’s also seen great success and engagement from LinkedIn, and believes it’s an underutilised tool in China.

“我们用半年使数据库的用户量达到了5000位，之后的3个月后我们的用户量更是达到了10000个！”现在他们主办了自己的活动，还成为其他一些活动的官方媒体合作伙伴。“中国分类”公司和各种企业/商业机构的合作伙伴关系甚为紧密。

“It took half a year to hit 5000 users in our databse, 3 months after that we hit 10,000!” Now they host their own events, and are official media partners for a host of other events. China Classifieds’s partnerships are particularly strong with entrepreneur/business organisations like Chinaccelerator, Slush and DoBe WE”.

GenNow is a new media platform focused on everything startup related. Analysing the sharing economy, speaking to industry insiders, interviewing notable entrepreneurs and examining tech trends. GENERATION NOW