PHOTO BY: Marissa Roth--New York Times
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Founder and chairman, GeoCities 1997 COMPENSATION $160,000
AGE 42
E-MAIL dbohnett@geocities.com
BIO Bohnett likens himself to a
latter-day Milton Berle or Buffalo Bill. "In the early days of
TV, it was just radio with pictures," he says. "People didn't
understand the potential of television to do something completely
different, but these guys did." So it was with the Internet: the
same format that succeeded in print and broadcast--professionally
edited material--flopped online. But Bohnett's idea of grouping
user-generated content is blossoming.
Currently GeoCities is host to more than 2 million
"homesteaders," people who design home pages in 40 distinct
neighborhoods, such as Yosemite (outdoorsy folk), BourbonStreet
(jazz, Cajun-food lovers) and Hollywood (people who watch E!).
The opportunity to reach a targeted group of loyal users--and the
millions of others their pages attract--has drawn intense interest
among advertisers.
Free home pages and user-created content emerged as much out of
necessity as of a grand vision, Bohnett says. "Back when we were
a staff of two, I would get e-mails saying, 'You should do this.'
I said, 'Great idea. How about you do it?'" From these e-mails
emerged "community leaders" and "community liaisons," regular
users who do much of the day-to-day work on geocities.com, like
monitoring content and helping new members build their sites.
Bohnett started GeoCities in 1994 after leaving a career in
software marketing at Legent (now Computer Associates) because,
he says, he was "captivated" by the Net. He grew up in the
Midwest and put himself through the University of Southern
California by waiting tables and delivering newspapers. Now
Bohnett has brought in publishing executive Thomas Evans to serve
as CEO and handle the day-to-day tasks while he works on
expanding, partnering with other companies and doing what he
likes best: community building. Bohnett frequents CapeCanaveral,
a science community; SiliconValley, a hangout for techno geeks;
and Heartland, a family-oriented neighborhood where he indulges
his interest in trains.
1998 POWER PLAY It has been a
roller-coaster year for GeoCities. In August the company settled
a Federal Trade Commission suit concerning disclosure of personal
information about its users. During the same month, it saw its
stock price double just one day after its initial public
offering. A home-page redesign in May positioned GeoCities to
compete with Net search and directory sites like Yahoo and
Excite. Those companies, along with America Online and Infoseek,
are moving in on Bohnett's turf, creating online communities of
their own.
PLACE YOUR BETS As GeoCities comes out of its quiet
period, analysts are keeping mum. With mixed buzz, it's wise to
wait and see.
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