Type of site hyperlocal marketplace Founder(s) George Eid | Area served Worldwide | |
 | ||
Type of business Classifieds, E-commerce Available in English, French, Spanish Headquarters Brooklyn, New York City, United States | ||
Krrb (pronounced 'curb') is a hyperlocal classified advertising website that allows individuals and businesses to sell vintage, antique, secondhand, handmade or locally sourced items including artisanal foods, art, design and collectables. Members of the website can also list real estate, housing, events, services, jobs and community notices. The website follows in the tradition of a neighborhood garage sale or flea market, prioritizing proximity over categorization so that users can see listings nearest to them. Each seller gets a personal storefronts (A.K.A. 'corners') where all their listings display.
Contents
As of October 2014, the company has 31,332 listings from 92,341 members in 3,211 cities and 118 countries.
History
Disenchanted with the state of online classifieds, "Craigslist felt like selling goods in a seedy back alley", founder George Eid decided to create an "online flea market [that] works the way craigslist should".
Krrb.com launched in November 2010 and incorporated as Krrb, Inc. in January 2011. The company is headquartered in Brooklyn, New York City and is privately owned by AREA 17, an interactive agency based in New York City and Paris, France.
AREA 17 founder George Eid founded Krrb.com as part of an incubator program started by the company, which also launched Slash Paris. Luis Lavena, core developer of Ruby (programming language), designed and developed the software and continues to lead the engineering team. Interactive art director Arnaud Mercier (now deceased) designed the logo and user interface. Andrew Wagner, former editor of ReadyMade, American Craft and Dwell Magazine and current columnist for the New York Times, joined the company in 2011 as Director and Editor in Chief. In 2014, Phil Jeffs, Director of Product at AREA 17, joined the team to lead product development.
Press
Touted as a "prettier Craigslist" and a "hyper-local Etsy with vintage, thrift & handmade goods", Krrb was immediately embraced by influencers as a "fantastic new online happy place" to "unload your stuff with no sketchiness". In 2013, The Huffington Post named Krrb one of the "10 best websites for vintage furniture", Mashable listed the Krrb iPhone app as one of "9 excellent apps for discovering new things" and PC World listed Krrb as "our favorite lifestyle websites".
Krrb Classifieds Network
In 2012, Krrb partnered with Apartment Therapy to create the Apartment Therapy Classifieds "dedicated to people who are serious about their home and furniture." This successful partnership lead to the creation of the Krrb Classifieds Network, "a multi-tenant B2B solution that enables any publisher, brand, university or even local government to rapidly deploy and expand their own branded (and curated) classifieds – without the need to worry about technology, security and customer service." The Krrb Classified Network was released in October 2013 with the launch of the Chicago Magazine Classifieds. According to Krrb founder George Eid. “By partnering with authoritative local publications such as Chicago, we can offer people a curated alternative that engages them on a very personal level – within an environment that they already love and trust.”
Conflict with Craigslist
In February 2013, Craigslist sent a Cease and Desist letter demanding that Krrb permanently disable its Krrb It button, a bookmarklet tool that enables a registered user of Krrb to copy factual information from their own Craigslist posts to Krrb, using publicly available information, and displayed in a way that is unique to Krrb. In order to avoid legal fees, Krrb disabled the Krrb It button for Craigslist; however, founder George Eid responded with an open letter to Craigslist founder Craig Newmark that triggered heated discussion on the web.