Where we stand and what we stand for

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Where we stand and what we stand for

We believe advertising is the last thing our users would want on their page, but this absence of a visible revenue generation can sometimes raise certain questions about how our company is doing, such as in a post last week by ReadWriteWeb in response to our brief downtime this past Friday.

This gives us a great opportunity to update you on our focus, our business health and our commitment to transparency.

Netvibes is all about Personalization (and what is our business model)

a. We offer Personalization for Individuals with netvibes.com

One use is Netvibes as a startpage but many use it as a “watch” page or dashboard like the Dublin public libraries for example. This is free for users. Instead of using intrusive ads, our business model is to deliver useful widgets through Sponsored Widget placements at the top of our Ecosystem.

b. We offer Personalization for Brands and Publishers

Netvibes is also a turnkey publishing solution to create branded personalizable pages, such as product microsites or media portals. Similar to Apple’s iWeb, we offer a magazine-like layout, lots of widgets, and drag-and-drop WYSIWYG page creation with zero programming required. We host and maintain the pages as well. Most importantly, personalized pages offer a stickier landing or central page than a flat HTML page that users can’t modify at all. On Netvibes powered pages, users can add, remove, change and customize the page at will. Creating a page with Netvibes brings a greater ROI than a classic flat HTML, because it encourages users to interact with brands and make their favorite brands their own. Now, users can have several personalized pages across the web from all their favorite brands. We are currently working with major ad agencies, in Europe and in the US to power a large variety of today’s top brands.

c. We offer Personalization for Enterprises

Since end of last year, we began to install Netvibes behind the firewall of large companies. Rambler, one of Russia’s largest ISPs, was amongst our first clients. With a proven and popular consumer product, a super powerful widget technology to develop their own internal widgets and a collection of nearly 180,000 widgets, we’ve generated lots of interest for enterprise portal solutions from large companies and ISPs, both for internal and external use.

You can learn more about all of our business products at: http://business.netvibes.com/

Our revenue is growing

We announced in May last year that we were on a plan to arrive at break even in Sept 2009. We announced in December last year that we quadrupled our revenue in 3 quarters and cut our burn rate by half. We announce today that we are achieving our Q1 financial goal, which was to grow our revenues by 25% over the previous quarter. And we are still on track for our Sept 09 break even goal.

So in light of the current economic environment, it’s important to remember that Netvibes raised only one single round of money, almost 3 years ago, back in August 2006, and we have met our financial goals ever since. We’ve never had any mass layoffs and have never changed our financial forecasts. We’ve accomplished all of this without ads or any other forced compromises to our product, thanks to your support and our clients’ business. Credits also go to our team and our partners. They are simply fantastic.

We are fully committed to transparency

If this has given us an opportunity for an update on Netvibes, I do not forget that it originated from a downtime on Friday for which I sincerely apologize for. Although we are concerned with uptime and reliability, first and foremost, we also want to be totally transparent on our system status and downtime on the rare occasions it does occur.

We are 100% committed to providing reports on all of our downtimes, explanations on why they occurred and the action we are taking to fix them so you’ll always know what’s going on. (Needless to say, we will do everything it takes to prevent these occurrences from happening in the first place.)

All information about our service status is available at: http://faq.netvibes.com/service_status.

Real time, real info, real Netvibes

To get all the latest updates and conversations on Netvibes, make sure you follow us on Twitter (@netvibes).

Thanks for taking the time to read this and again, thank you for your continued support. We look forward to hearing from you so please feel free to leave a comment below or to send us a note on Twitter.

Freddy Mini, CEO

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 12th, 2009 at 16:50 and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

26 Responses to “Where we stand and what we stand for”

#1 | Josh | March 12th, 2009 at 16:56

What about offering custom URLs for some money?

So instead of http://www.netvibes.com/brand
allow businesses to make http://www.brand.com their universe.

Look at skittles.com they understand their brand is what is found on other sites. And while you control your own widgets / layout you can still give it the normal brand site looks. Just more dynamic, more sharable (social) and with no development cost.
#2 | Vinicius | March 12th, 2009 at 18:11

I believe and trust you Netvibes.
#3 | Freddy Mini | March 12th, 2009 at 18:16

@josh We, indeed, offer this solution. Check it out here. business.netvibes.com/pre…
Feel free to contact us at business.netvibes.com/con… or directly at freddy [at] netvibes.com
#4 | Juan | March 12th, 2009 at 19:03

Thank you Netvibes. This is very reassuring for me. In my book, Netvibes is undoubtedly the #1 personalization service. Rock on!
#5 | Martin | March 12th, 2009 at 22:27

Cheers, Freddy and Netvibes. The more I use other services, the mroe I realize that none compete. It’s great to know that transparency is there, and that it *is* possible to profit without ads on personal pages. Great, great, GREAT free service, customer focus and I hope you stay this way!
#6 | Alec | March 13th, 2009 at 07:15

I would like to thank Netvibes for their reassurance after the damaging posting last week.

Netvibes is my personal nerve centre and it is an indispensible tool.
#7 | Laurent | March 13th, 2009 at 09:52

Just keep up the good work. After having problem with widgets not loading up, I’ve tried switching to iGoogle but it just doesn’t do the job for me.

I need Netvibes!
#8 | Mitchell | March 13th, 2009 at 16:29

I was appalled at the RWW post last week! Even without your post today you are doing a terrific job. Keep it up!
#9 | Einträge | March 13th, 2009 at 21:01

Just keep up the good work. After having problem with widgets not loading up, I’ve tried switching to iGoogle but it just doesn’t do the job for me.
#10 | SCPI | March 13th, 2009 at 23:20

It’s totally fine for me to get rewarded for your work!
Good Luck!
#11 | aşk | March 14th, 2009 at 18:26

Just keep up the good work. After having problem with widgets not loading up, I’ve tried switching to iGoogle but it just doesn’t do the job for me.
#12 | KDHUK | March 15th, 2009 at 13:08

Any chance,that once you’re making money , you could buy up Google and turn iGoogle into a decent start page !!!

You’re all doing a GREAT job!
#13 | PJA | March 16th, 2009 at 10:42

On a quick benchmark, Netvibes came out as the best start page currently available: intuitive interface, powerful yet simple to customise, rich widgets, etc; the whole setup exhumes profesionalism & dedication. (I wouldn’t mind discreet adverts if this would help Netvibes keep providing & improving).
– PJA
#14 | Gebäudereinigung | March 16th, 2009 at 18:58

I believe and trust you Netvibes.
#15 | Sesli Sohbet | March 18th, 2009 at 18:15

Really easy and great way to make widgets from feeds. Cheers
#16 | Sesli Sohbet | March 18th, 2009 at 18:15

Really easy and great way to make widgets from feeds. Cheers
#17 | mp3 | March 19th, 2009 at 09:26

simple to customise, rich widgets, etc; the whole setup exhumes profesionalism & dedication. (I wouldn’t mind discreet adverts if this would help Netvibes keep providing & improving).
#18 | Raheel | March 20th, 2009 at 10:48

I just love the service. It changed the whole experience of web for me, i normally dont post much comments, but i feel obliged to commend you on the great job you have done.
Its the best RSS reader around , far better than feed demon even ( which doesnt have the rich ecosystem of widgets available here) i look forward to using your service.A humble request though, please ensure that downtime is as minimal as possible .
Other than that great job =D
#19 | ovais mirza | March 21st, 2009 at 12:52

Yes…for the last few weeks nevbites has some problems regarding generating feeds and creating widgets…but it is really the hard work from the nice persons at nevbites that it is now working properly..
#20 | Shawn | March 25th, 2009 at 13:35

Thanks for the update, I never read the news referred to in this blog, but I’m glad to see you addressing it. I love Netvibes, as it’s a great way to — as you say it — remix the web. Keep up the good work!
#21 | Carlos Lorenzo | March 25th, 2009 at 14:22

Netvibes has quality and it has some rather unique traits that clearly distinguish the company from others. I have been a Netvibes user for some years now. Sometimes I have the feeling that everything is static. It is like a little jewel that could yield more profit. I wish sometimes I it were more social networks friendly, more dynamic. But all in all I am happy with Netvibes and I am sure you will break even by September. Good luck.
#22 | Josh Kadis | March 25th, 2009 at 15:59

Thanks Freddy. I was pretty stunned at the RWW post – did they even give you an opportunity to comment before it was published?
#23 | Shaun B | March 25th, 2009 at 21:37

Great post. Responsbility from the top down is great to see. Not a huge fan of the magazine style. It looks great but i’m aggregating so much, it’s not feasible. Working towards a sustainable non-ad-driven revenue model is admirable. I think the branding movement is a good idea. Personally I have loved netvibes for years how ever twitter is slowly usurping it. It is a different type of information feed but right now I like the current nature of twitter. The massive amount of memory netvibes seemed to be consuming was also a turnoff. Keep up the great work.
#24 | betclic | March 30th, 2009 at 17:03

Thanks for that update, so usefull for me !
#25 | hashim | April 5th, 2009 at 12:36

Thanks for that update,I have been a Netvibes user for some years now. Sometimes I have the feeling that everything is static.Now! I try to improve my self.
#26 | log splitter | April 11th, 2009 at 12:23

Just keep up the good work. After having problem with widgets not loading up, I’ve tried switching to iGoogle but it just doesn’t do the job for me.