Visiting the Office of 88DB.com and JobsDB.com

Yesterday I was summoned by one of Nuffnang's clients to pay a visit to their office.

Now let me explain the concept of the word CLIENT.

A client is a customer.

A customer is someone who pays money so that a company like Nuffnang can survive.

Ever heard of the phrase
"Customer is King?"

Well, it can be almost directly translated to
"Client is KING".

What does that phrase mean?

It means, when the client says to you
"JUMP!"

You DON'T say
"What?"

You DON'T say
"Huh?"

And you SURE AS HELL BETTER NOT SAY
"Why?"

No... you say...

"How High?"

Similarly, when a client says
"Come to our office".
You DON'T say
"Why?"

But you say
"WHEN?"

and if your client says
"RIGHT NOW"

You DON'T say
"But but... I can't right now... my grandma is not well and I'm taking her to the clinic".

You say
"YES SIR WILL BE THERE IN TEN MINUTES! PO PO CAN WAIT!"

and if your client says
"Make it FIVE!"

You DON'T say
"But but... that's impossible! I'm in Subang right now and your office is in KL".

You say
"SIR YES SIR!"

Anyway, this client is 88db.com which coincidentally is owned by and shares the same office with JobsDB.com, a dotcom in Malaysia that requires no introduction.
You will see some of their ads running around the Nuffnang Community this week.

88db.com is one website that you just can't ignore unless you're a fool.

I feel stupid enough for not knowing it exists until they approached Nuffnang for a campaign.

I mean here is a wonderful website that has everything you can ever look for, a huge directory of user posted content that can find you everything from weddings to pets to even home-made cookies for Hari Raya!

There is even this little eBay-like trading area where you can sell your junk and buy other people's junk (Eh! One man's meat is another man's poison).

So anyway, back to my story.

I paid a visit to 88DB (JobsDB)'s office today at Menara UOA and was greeted by a very nice and polite receptionist.

Then my client came out of the back and greeted me with a smile.

Everyone!

Say Hello to Christine!

Christine is the Marketing Manager at 88db and one of the people responsible for giving you your ads!

Christine is among the nicest of our clients at Nuffnang.

Upon greeting me today she asked
"Are you still having a hangover from the other night? Do you want some water?"

In which I replied
"No... I'm okay now thanks" (with my face turning redder than a red tomato).

We sat in a meeting room and chatted while waiting for her Boss, the General Manager of JobsDB Malaysia to step into the room.

And before you know it, Steven opened the door, stepped into the room gave me a handshake so firm I couldn't feel my fingers.

With a smile on his face he said
"Why don't we do this in my office?"

So he brought me through the workstations of the other people at 88DB (and JobsDB) and straight to his office at the back.

Then he sat down on the chair and we started talking away.Steven shared with me his inspirations on 88db.com
"Where do you find a website today that provides a service of helping people find what they need and yet does not charge both users and advertisers for using it?"

And he was right.

In a website like eBay, typically if you were to sell something, eBay will take a transaction fee off your sale but on 88DB.com, it's completely free.

If you're a freelance designer and want to post your services there, you can do so for FREE...

WITHOUT paying a single cent... on a website that is viewed by so many people each day it's almost like putting an ad up in the field of the World Cup Finals. (Okay I kinda exaggerated there, but you get my point).

Why do they do it?

My guess is just like the Founders of Google, they believed in building something that added value FIRST, before trying to earn money off it, and that is the mindset of a rare breed of new generation dotcoms.

After our long chat, I asked Steven and Christine if they would humour me and let me take a picture of them and putting it on my blog since I don't often get to blog about visiting our clients' offices.

They agreed.


Then I asked Steven if he would let me take a picture with him.

And .... he..... AGREED!!!


Now that's not all there is to this blog entry.

I mean sure, I just kinda explained how a typical day for me at work goes... and where I go... but let me tell you something else I happened to see today.

You remember the chair that Steven was sitting on?

Does it look familiar to you?

No?

Ok let me remind you.

Remember this picture?

THAT IS THE VERY SAME CHAIR I SO WANTED TO BUY WHEN I WENT SHOPPING FOR OFFICE FURNITURE A MONTH AGO BUT HAD TO HAVE A PARTICULAR SOMEONE TALK ME OUT OF!!!

AUGGHHH!!!!!

AUGHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

&(*#$&*(#&(*$#&(*$#&(*$&*(#$&*(

And here's the joke.

When I first noticed the chair and started drooling over it... Steven said
"Oh yeah.. this chair... I don't like it... made a mistake buying it.. piece of junk!"

My heart broke into so many pieces, it would take miles of scotch tape to mend it back together.

*sigh*

One man's meat, is another man's poison.

PS: Check out 88db when you guys have the time. There's seriously a lot of stuff going on there.