Ning (website)

Last updated
Ning, Inc.
Ning-logo.png
Type of business Subsidiary
Type of site
 Social networking service, Community building platform
Available in Multilingual
Founded Palo Alto, California (2004 (2004)) [1]
Headquarters Palo Alto, California, U.S.
Founder(s)
Employees> 50 (2014) [1]
URL www.ning.com
LaunchedOctober 2005 [2]

Ning is an online social media network platform for people and organizations to create custom social networks. [3] Ning was co-founded by Marc Andreessen and Gina Bianchini and launched in October 2005. [2] By June 2011 there were over 90,000 social websites running on the Ning Platform. [4]

Contents

History

Ning started development in October 2004 and launched its platform publicly in October 2005. [5]

At its launch, Ning was a free-form platform for the development and hosting of open-source "social applications". [5] The source code for Ning applications was available to users so that anyone could fork a Ning application, modify its PHP code and run it as their own. In late September 2006, Ning narrowed its focus to offering a group website, a photos website, and a videos website for people to copy and use for any purpose. These three templates were later superseded by a single customizable application aimed at enabling anyone to easily create their own social network.

Ning was initially funded internally by Bianchini, Andreessen and angel investors. In July 2007, Ning raised US$44 million in venture capital, led by Legg Mason. [6] In 2008 and 2009, the company announced it had raised an additional US$75 million in capital. [7] [8]

On April 15, 2010, CEO Jason Rosenthal announced that the free service would be suspended, and 41% of the employees would be laid off. Users of the free service had the option to either upgrade to a paid account or transition their content from Ning. [9] In 2011, Ning was purchased by Glam Media [10] [11] and then officially acquired by Mode Media. [12]

Features

Ning allows users to create their own communities and social networks around specific interests with their own visual design, choice of features and member data. [13] Ning provides several core features, including opportunities for monetization, integration with other social networks, chat, email services, forums, polls and analytics. [14] [15] [16] Customers are also able to map a Ning social network to a custom domain. [17]

The social networks running on Ning's service are programmed with PHP and the platform itself is built in Java. [18] Since October 2010, social networks using Ning can be administered through an iOS application. [19]

In February 2018, Ning launched a monetization platform, enabling users to earn an income from their social websites. [20]

See also

Related Research Articles

Netscape Communications Corporation was an American independent computer services company with headquarters in Mountain View, California, and then Dulles, Virginia. Its Netscape web browser was once dominant but lost to Internet Explorer and other competitors in the first browser war, with its market share falling from more than 90 percent in the mid-1990s to less than one percent in 2006. An early Netscape employee, Brendan Eich, created the JavaScript programming language, the most widely used language for client-side scripting of web pages. A founding engineer of Netscape, Lou Montulli, created HTTP cookies. The company also developed SSL which was used for securing online communications before its successor TLS took over.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Instant messaging</span> Form of computer communication over the internet or locally

Instant messaging (IM) technology is a type of synchronous computer-mediated communication involving the immediate (real-time) transmission of messages between two or more parties over the Internet or another computer network. Originally involving simple text message exchanges, modern IM applications and services tend to also feature the exchange of multimedia, emojis, file transfer, VoIP, and video chat capabilities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marc Andreessen</span> American entrepreneur, investor, and software engineer (born 1971)

Marc Lowell Andreessen is an American businessman and former software engineer. He is the co-author of Mosaic, the first widely used web browser with a graphical user interface; co-founder of Netscape; and co-founder and general partner of Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. He co-founded and later sold the software company Opsware to Hewlett-Packard; he also co-founded Ning, a company that provides a platform for social networking websites. He is an inductee in the World Wide Web Hall of Fame. Andreessen's net worth is estimated at $1.7 billion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Friendster</span> Social gaming site

Friendster is a social network originally based in Mountain View, California, founded by Jonathan Abrams and launched in March 2003. Before Friendster was redesigned, the service allowed users to contact other members, maintain those contacts, and share online content and media with those contacts. The website was also used for dating and discovering new events, bands and hobbies. Users could share videos, photos, messages, and comments with other members via profiles and networks. It is considered one of the original social networks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ZDNET</span> Business technology news website

ZDNET is a business technology news website owned and operated by Red Ventures. The brand was founded on April 1, 1991, as a general interest technology portal from Ziff Davis and evolved into an enterprise IT-focused online publication.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Myspace</span> Social networking website

Myspace is a social networking service based in the United States. Launched on August 1, 2003, it was the first social network to reach a global audience and had a significant influence on technology, pop culture and music. It also played a critical role in the early growth of companies like YouTube and created a developer platform that launched the successes of Zynga, RockYou and Photobucket, among others. From 2005 to 2009, Myspace was the largest social networking site in the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Meebo</span> Instant messaging client

Meebo was an instant messaging and social networking service provider. It was founded in September 2005 by Sandy Jen, Seth Sternberg, and Elaine Wherry, and was based in Mountain View, California. Initially the company offered a web-based instant messenger service, extending its offer in more general online chat and even social networking directions. In June 2012, Google acquired Meebo to merge the company's staff with the Google+ developers team.

Wallop is an American software company that was spun off from Microsoft in 2003 to provide a social networking service, and from 2008 made Adobe Flash-based applications for other social networks. Wallop was a research project from the Social Computing Group that was a part of the Microsoft Research team. In the beginning, membership to Wallop was limited so that the testing groups were more controlled for trial purposes.

The online service imeem was a social media website where users interacted with each other by streaming, uploading and sharing music and music videos. It operated from 2003 until 2009 when it was shut down after being acquired by MySpace.

Justin Kan is an American internet entrepreneur and investor. He is the co-founder of live video platforms Justin.tv and Twitch, as well as the mobile social video application Socialcam. He was also the co-founder and former CEO of law-tech company Atrium before it was shut down in March 2020. In 2021, he launched NFT marketplace Fractal, which was renamed to Stash in 2024.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brightcove</span> Boston, Massachusetts–based software company that produces an online video platform

Brightcove, Inc. is a Boston, Massachusetts–based software company that produces an online video platform.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">KickApps</span>

KickApps is a hosted platform for creating social networks and adding social software features, video players and widgets to websites. More than 100,000 sites use KickApps, including major media companies and a wide variety of niche websites.

Glam.com was a digital lifestyle media company where content was produced by anyone but reviewed by professional editors prior to publishing. In 2013, Mode Media had a valuation of about $1 billion as the company prepped for an IPO. In 2015, Mode Media had grown to over $100 million in revenue, primarily from providing native content, branded video and digital advertising to large brands but had over $100 million in expenses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gina Bianchini</span> American entrepreneur and investor

Gina Bianchini is an American entrepreneur and investor. She is the Founder & CEO of Mighty Networks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Skype Qik</span> Video messaging service from Skype

Skype Qik was a video messaging service by Skype. It was created by the company, Skype Technologies, who acquired Qik. The service, offered for Android, iOS, and Windows Phone devices, allowed users to exchange video messages between individuals or within a group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scoreloop</span>

Scoreloop, a subsidiary of BlackBerry, was a cross-platform social gaming network for the operating systems including BlackBerry, Android, Bada, iOS and Windows Phone 7.

Andreessen Horowitz is a private American venture capital firm, founded in 2009 by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. The company is headquartered in Menlo Park, California. As of April 2023, Andreessen Horowitz ranks first on the list of venture capital firms by assets under management, with $42 billion as of May 2024.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Skout</span> Social networking website

SKOUT is the developer of a location-based social networking and dating application and website. SKOUT was one of the first dating and mobile people discovery applications to emphasize generalized user location. SKOUT is available on both iOS and Android operating systems. Other SKOUT properties include Nixter, a nightlife app, and Fuse, an ephemeral group messaging app. SKOUT reported that over 500 million connections were made using its app in 2013.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heello</span> Online social networking service

Heello was an online social networking service and microblogging service launched in August 2011, and owned and operated by Heello Inc. Heello enabled its users to send and read text-based posts and to share pictures and videos. Heello was founded by Noah Everett, exactly one day after Twitter rolled out its official photo-sharing app. Heello is financed by the money generated by TwitPic through online advertising. Within the first day, there were about average 4 Pings a second. On 12 August 2011, Noah Everett reported that Heello had reached 1 million Pings in just 2 days.

ItsOn was an American software company based in Redwood City, California that developed cloud computing software for enhancing the performance of mobile networks. ItsOn's software platform gave mobile network operators the ability to offer granular and flexible, user-customizable services. Users could select and change mobile voice, text, and data services, as well as manage devices, plan sharing and permissions, directly from smart devices at any time.

References

  1. 1 2 "Corporate Info, History" Archived 2011-07-30 at the Wayback Machine , Ning. Retrieved June 12, 2011.
  2. 1 2 Ok, I am excited by Gina Bianchini, Ning Blog, October 3, 2005
  3. ↑ Social Graph-iti, The Economist, Oct 18, 2007
  4. ↑ With Revenue Up 400%, Ning Adds Paid Access Service, Tomio Geron, Forbes, June 15, 2011
  5. 1 2 Andreessen adds some Ning to the Web, by Martin LaMonica, CNET news, Oct 6, 2005
  6. ↑ Ning news: new investment round Archived 2007-10-20 at the Wayback Machine , by Marc Andreessen, blog.pmarca.com, Jul 9, 2007
  7. ↑ Ning news: Series D investment round Archived 2009-01-29 at the Wayback Machine , by Marc Andreessen, April 18, 2008
  8. ↑ Ning Raises $15 Million More at a–Yes, Really–$750 Million Valuation, by Kara Swisher, AllThingsD.com, July 21, 2009
  9. ↑ Kincaid, Jason (15 April 2010). "Ning's Bubble Bursts: No More Free Networks, Cuts 40% Of Staff". TechCrunch. Retrieved 10 February 2022.
  10. ↑ "Glam Media Buys Marc Andreessen's Ning". Business Insider. Retrieved 2018-10-12.
  11. ↑ "Glam Buys Ning For $150 Million, Andreessen Joins Board". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2018-10-12.
  12. ↑ Spangler, Todd (2016-09-16). "Mode Media Shuts Down: Women-Focused Digital Player Once Valued at $1 Billion". Variety. Retrieved 2018-10-12.
  13. ↑ Web pioneer touts Ning Inc. as easy to use social network Archived 2009-05-31 at the Wayback Machine , by Michael Liedtke, Rocky Mountain News, Mar 5, 2007
  14. ↑ "Ning Creators Social Network". creators.ning.com. Retrieved 2017-10-31.
  15. ↑ "How to create your own social network | NING Social Platform in use". NING. Retrieved 2017-10-31.
  16. ↑ "NING Features: Create & cultivate your unique community website". NING. Retrieved 2017-10-31.
  17. ↑ "What Is Ning and Is It Worth Using?". Lifewire. Retrieved 2018-10-12.
  18. ↑ Andreessen: PHP succeeding where Java isn't, by Stephen Shankland, CNET News, Oct 19, 2005
  19. ↑ Just one more thing…, Evan Goldin on October 20, 2010
  20. ↑ GmbH, finanzen.net. "NING, a Social Website Builder, is Putting Forth Two Major Updates: Landing Page Builder and the iDeal Payment Method Integration | Markets Insider". markets.businessinsider.com. Retrieved 2018-10-12.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.