Weebly

Weebly

Weebly's page editor
Stable release
March 29, 2006 (2006-03-29) (Beta)
Operating system Cross-platform
Type Web hosting
Alexa rank Negative increase 343 (September 2016)[1]
Website

Weebly (/ˈwibli/) is a web-hosting service featuring a drag-and-drop website builder.[2][3][4] The company is headquartered in San Francisco. The company was founded by chief executive officer (CEO) David Rusenko, chief technology officer (CTO) Chris Fanini, and chief operating officer (COO) Dan Veltri.[5][6] The startup competes with Wix.com, Webs, WordPress.com, Squarespace.com, Jimdo, Yola, SnapPages, and other web-hosting and creation websites.

History

David Rusenko, Chris Fanini, and Dan Veltri co-founded Weebly in 2006.[6] Rusenko and Fanini both attended the College of Information Sciences and Technology at Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) while Veltri attended the university's Smeal College of Business. The three founders were all 22-year-old students at Penn State when they founded the company. At the time, Penn State required all students to maintain an Internet portfolio, so they built upon this idea and created software that made it easy for anyone to build a personal website.[6]

Formal development of Weebly began in January 2006 and the invitational beta release was announced in June 2006;[7] The official private-beta launched in September 2006.[8]

In January 2007, Weebly was selected for Y Combinator’s winter startup program in Silicon Valley, California[6][9] This selection represents the time that Rusenko, Veltri and Fanini began working on Weebly full-time.[9]

In March 2007, Weebly re-launched with its characteristic "what-you-see-is-what-you-get" editing interface.[10][11] Also in 2007, Weebly raised a US$650,000 financing round from several angel investors, including Ron Conway, Steve Anderson, Mike Maples, and Paul Buchheit.[6][11]

In 2008 Weebly added "Pro" accounts and Google AdSense monetization features, as well as compatibility with Google Chrome and Safari.[12] Weebly reached one million users in 2008 and released a statement announcing that it had become profitable.

During its initial startup years, Weebly received criticism for its lack of CSS/HTML editing support, and in 2009 it added this functionality.[13]

In 2011, Weebly raised a growth-stage round from Sequoia Capital and added Roelof Botha to its board of directors.[14]

In April 2014, Weebly raised $35 million in Series C funding from existing partner Sequoia Capital and Tencent Holdings Ltd.[15] The funds will be used to expand into new markets, increase investment in research and development, and drive Weebly's mission of empowering people to pursue their passion.

Rusenko stated in August 2013 that the company signed a lease for a 36,000 square feet (3,300 m2) warehouse in San Francisco, based on an expectation of ongoing growth. The new office will house the majority of a global team of 600 employees in 2014 when it moves into the property. As of August 25, 2013, Weebly had 80 employees and was based in an 11,000 square feet (1,000 m2) space in the Pacific Heights area of San Francisco.[16]

In October 2015 it was announced that a Berlin office would open in late 2015/early 2016 to offer European-based support and marketing.

Product

Weebly's free online website creator uses a simple widget-based site builder that operates in the web browser.[2][17][3][4] All the site elements are drag-and-drop,[2][4] and it automatically generates a mobile version of each website.[17] Storage is unlimited, but the service restricts individual file sizes.[17] Consumers are given the option to have any url ending in .weebly.com, .com, .net, .org, .co, .info, or .us. (example.weebly.com)

Android and iPhone apps are available that allow users to monitor their website traffic statistics, update blog posts and respond to comments, and add or update products if the user has an e-commerce online store.[18] Basic features for blogging and e-Commerce are supported: site owners can develop simple stores with payments through either PayPal, Stripe or Authorize.net.[19] Users can choose to incorporate advertisements in their pages, and visitor statistics can be tracked through an in-house tracking tool or Google Analytics.[17]

A new version was released on October 1, 2015. Named Weebly Carbon, it enabled users to add plugins into their websites among other features.[20]

Public relations and sponsorship

Weebly co-sponsored the "PSUhackathon", while Rusenko and Fanini spoke at the event.[5]

Awards and recognition

TIME Magazine listed Weebly amongst the 50 Best Websites of 2007.[2]

Weebly has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur Magazine and Newsweek.[6][21][22] It was also featured briefly on the BBC in February 2008.[4]

Google Chrome featured Weebly in the Utilities section of the Chrome web store. Weebly was one of the featured apps in the Chrome web store’s launch.[13][23]

Vikitech, Business Insider, and InGeek have all featured Weebly as one of the best Google Chrome apps.

David Rusenko, Weebly’s CEO and co-founder, earned a spot in Forbes’ 2011 "30 Under 30" list.[24]

Censorship

In December 2014, the Indian government blocked Weebly in India, due to fears that ISIS propaganda was being spread through the site.[25] On December 31, the site was again made available throughout India.[26]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Weebly.com Site Info". Alexa Internet. Retrieved 2016-09-21.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Mary Murray Buner (July 8, 2007). "50 Best Websites 2007". TIME Specials. Retrieved September 12, 2012.
  3. 1 2 Mike Johnston (July 6, 2012). "Weebly Review-The Website Builder that makes Web Design Fun". CMS Critic. Retrieved September 24, 2012.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Kate Russell (February 15, 2008). "Webscape". BBC News. Retrieved September 24, 2012.
  5. 1 2 PSUhackathon. "Sponsorship & Judges". #PSUhackathon. Retrieved September 24, 2012.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Steven Levy (May 20, 2007). "Meet the Next Billionaires". The Daily Beast. Retrieved September 24, 2012.
  7. ↑ Weebly blog (June 29, 2006). "Exciting Developments". Weebly. Retrieved September 24, 2012.
  8. ↑ Weebly blog (September 12, 2006). "Weebly private-beta launch". Weebly. Retrieved September 24, 2012.
  9. 1 2 Weebly. "About Us". Weebly. Retrieved September 24, 2012.
  10. ↑ Weebly blog (March 7, 2007). "Weebly Re-Launches". Weebly. Retrieved September 24, 2012.
  11. 1 2 Blake Robinson (May 9, 2007). "Weebly Launches blog Platform, Closes $650K Investment". TechCrunch. Retrieved September 24, 2012.
  12. ↑ David Adewumi (June 10, 2008). "Weebly, a Simple web page creator,launches Adsense feature and pro accounts". Venture Beat. Retrieved September 24, 2012.
  13. 1 2 Weebly Blog (December 7, 2010). "Weebly Launches as a Featured Chrome Web Store App". Weebly. Retrieved September 24, 2012.
  14. ↑ Roelof Botha. "Weebly: What we do". SEQUOIA Capital. Retrieved September 24, 2012.
  15. ↑ "$35 million Series C Funding". Weebly. Retrieved 27 April 2014.
  16. ↑ Rip Empson (25 August 2013). "As Wix Heads Toward IPO, Weebly Looks To Expand With Big New SF Headquarters, Plans To Add 500+ Employees". TechCrunch. AOL Inc. Retrieved 26 August 2013.
  17. 1 2 3 4 Weebly,Inc (September 19, 2012). "Weebly". iTunes Store. Retrieved September 24, 2012.
  18. ↑ "iPhone and Android Apps". Weebly. Retrieved 27 April 2014.
  19. ↑ "Payment Gateways for Weebly Commerce". Weebly, Inc. Retrieved 7 May 2014.
  20. ↑ Anthony Ha (October 1, 2015). "Website Builder Weebly Gets A Revamp And Its First App Center". TechCrunch. Retrieved 12 February 2016.
  21. ↑ "Chris Fanini". Penn State University. Retrieved September 24, 2012.
  22. ↑ Vauhini Vara (March 3, 2009). "How to Create a Successful Web Site For Nothing (or Almost Nothing)". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved September 24, 2012.
  23. ↑ Weebly. "Weebly: Website Builder". Google Chrome. Retrieved September 24, 2012.
  24. ↑ "30 Under 30:Social/Mobile". Forbes. Retrieved September 24, 2012.
  25. ↑ Jeff Stone. "Vimeo, DailyMotion, Pastebin Among Sites Blocked In India For 'Anti-India' Content From ISIS". International Business Times.
  26. ↑ Ravi Sharma (January 2, 2015). "Indian government unblocks Vimeo, Dailymotion, 2 other websites". The Times of India.
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