World's First Co-Working Space
Çat Çat Çalışma Salonu a spectacular public space, way ahead of it's time
In today’s busy and heavily networked environment, we have grown accustomed to things like, remote working, latte art and rapid wi-fi. But this was not so in the world of 1998 when the world’s first co-working space was founded in Ankara.
Çat Çat Çalışma Salonu or Chat Chat Wok Hall was founded by Zeynep Sağlam and Hikmet Şeker during a time of profound changes in the world and in Turkish society. Sağlam and Şeker who were both among the first generation of software engineers who had worked in silicon valley during the swelling of the dotcom bubble had the visionary idea of creating a new kind of space that would serve as an “innovation hub” for new generations of Turkish investors interested in profiting from newly emerging opportunities in the global market.
When Sağlam and Şeker learned that the National Procurement Office was being relocated to a larger facility in Dikmen area, they benefited from E-Ticaret Seferberliği (E-Commerce Mobilisation) program to lease the old building from the government at a subsided rat. Çat Çat opened it’s doors to the public on November 1st in 1998 with great fanfare. The opening party made headlines in local newspapers for the colourful animal mascots and is still remembered fondly by residents of Ankara who were children at the time.
Çat Çat offered a wide range of amenities including collective spaces, shared computers, meeting rooms and crucially, free tea. The internet was accessed by dial up and was typically around 58Kbps. Membership was “Multi-Leveled”. Early adopters paid less and received part of the subscriptions from later members and each level received compounding benefits from subsequent layers below them. A leaflet printed and distributed by the founders called 9 Ways in Which Çat Çat is not a Pyramid Scheme explains structure in more detail.
Çat Çat managed to survive the initial collapse of the dotcom bubble by introducing a new membership tier for young students. This new tier had no access to limitless tea and internet but it was considerably lower priced. High school students who were preparing for the highly competitive university exams began to frequent Çat Çat in the early 00’s. But swelling membership caused new problems. Early adopters complained that the presence of high school students was making the Çat Çat too loud to work fruitfully and were dissatisfied with the low membership rates paid by the students.
One morning in 2003 plaintiffs knocked on the door of the founders Sağlam and Şeker but could not find them. They had vanished thoroughly and completely leaving Çat Çat indebted to banks and investors alike. Şeker’s name is mentioned in the Panama papers released in 2016 as the possible director of an investment fund managing various shell companies but no address associated with his name could be located.
Çat Çat was more than just a co-working space, it was a microcosm, an experiment way ahead of its time, a disruptive synergy that completely revolutionised the investment ecosystem and most of all an opportunity of a lifetime, if you can seize it before anyone else!
