Ning as platform for Urgent Evoke. Ning (Ning) Peter Harris Slutsky (pslutsky) Update: Phasing Out Free Services. Hi, Today we made some changes at Ning. I want to share with you the email Jason Rosenthal, our CEO, sent to all Ning employees: Team, When I became CEO 30 days ago, I told you I would take a hard look at our business. This process has brought real clarity to what's working, what's not, and what we need to do now to make Ning a big success. My main conclusion is that we need to double down on our premium services business. So, we are going to change our strategy to devote 100% of our resources to building the winning product to capture this big opportunity. As a consequence of this change, I have also made the very tough decision to reduce the size of our team from 167 people to 98 people. I've never seen a more talented and devoted team, and it has been my privilege to get to know and work with each and every one of you over the last 18 months.
We'll use today to say goodbye to our friends and teammates who will be leaving the company. Thanks,Jason Rosenthal Thanks,John McDonaldVP Advocacy. @Ning will fase out free service , consequences for our data @ev. Ning: Failures, Lessons and Six Alternatives. Ning, the network of social networks that boasted 20 million visitors a month, is making massive staff cutbacks and has announced a complete end to free services for its users. Those who pay for premium services will be asked to pay more, and those who are getting their social networks free of charge will be asked to fork over or phase off the Ning platform.
For a while now, we've been seeing Ning through rose-colored glasses. One year ago to the day, the company announced it had attained 1 million unique social networks built on its platform, along with a $500 million valuation. In May 2009, the company rolled out a developer platform along with 90 ready-to-go applications for network creators. On paper, their numbers were looking great. Then, just last month, we got word that CEO Gina Bianchini had left the company. On the heels of this news came a 40% workforce reduction and a dramatic announcement from the new CEO, Jason Rosenthal: The Cost of Free Ning Alternatives. Ning’s Bubble Bursts: No More Free Networks, Cuts 40% Of Staff. One month after long-time Ning CEO Gina Bianchini was replaced by COO Jason Rosenthal, the company is making some major changes: It has just announced that it is killing off its free product, forcing existing free networks to either make the change to premium accounts or migrate their networks elsewhere.
Rosenthal has also just announced that the company has cut nearly 70 people — over 40% of its staff. Here’s the email Rosenthal just sent out to the company: Team,When I became CEO 30 days ago, I told you I would take a hard look at our business. This process has brought real clarity to what’s working, what’s not, and what we need to do now to make Ning a big success.My main conclusion is that we need to double down on our premium services business. Ning’s announcement also says that it will be giving network creators more details in the next two weeks. While the email talks about Free versus Premium paid networks, Ning actually has a variety of different premium upgrades. No Free Lunch for Ning Users; Still Plenty of Bargains Elsewhere. The social networking platform Ning announced today that it was making some substantial changes to the company.
The news, coming just one month after Jason Rosenthal replaced Gina Bianchini as CEO, was sour for both employees and for many users of the service. Ning will cut 70 jobs and will end free subscriptions to the site. Rosenthal writes in the press release, "We will phase out our free service. Existing free networks will have the opportunity to either convert to paying for premium services, or transition off of Ning. " According to the release, paying subscribers account for 75% of the service's traffic. These fees have ranged from $4.95 per month to use your own domain name, to $24.95 per month to remove Ning's promotional links, although it's unclear if those fees will change.
But the service has long been used by many small groups and organization, many of which are in a tail-spin over today's announcement. Apps - Ning Developer Network. Ning (website) Ning is an online platform for people and organizations to create custom social networks,[5][6][7] launched in October 2005.[4] Ning offers customers the ability to create a community website with a customized appearance and feel; feature sets such as photos, videos, forums and blogs; and support for “Like”, plus integration with Facebook, Twitter, Google and Yahoo!. [6][8] Ning, Inc. is owned by Glam Media and, like the operating company, has its headquarters in Palo Alto, California.[9] The service allows customers to charge for membership directly within their Ning Network.[10] Customers can also monetize by using services provided through partnerships established by Ning, and adding display advertisements,[11] such as Google AdSense, to their Ning Network.
Ning was co-founded by Marc Andreessen and Gina Bianchini. Ning is Andreessen's third company (after Netscape and Opsware). On September 21, 2011, the company announced that it had been acquired by Glam Media.[16] NingApps fun&games. NingApps Qik. Ning’s Social Networks Get Their Own App Platform. Ning, the social network for social networks, recently hit the 1 million networks milestone. But with such a huge user base comes huge user demand for additional features and functionality.
Today, Ning is about to deliver some of that functionality to their 700,000 social network creators with Ning Apps, giving them more than 90 new toys — think apps like Qik, Twitter, Ustream, Box.net, Tokbox, WordPress, Mailchimp, and PollDaddy — that they can use to enhance their individual networks. The new apps aren't just social in nature, but impressively functional, combining passion and purpose for all niche audiences. So groups that want to create their own store or sell items (like music) can select from 10 different e-commerce apps.
Networks looking to collaborate can tap into 18 different options like wikis, file storage (via Box.net), docs (via Google Docs), video chat (via ToxBox), and whiteboards (via Huddle). Ning CEO Gina Bianchini Stepping Down. Ning. Media Player.