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I have a small, niche website business so I know a little about this (we aren't on the scale of these guys but do low 7-figures). Wix and Squarespace at least
by callmeed 13y ago
I have a small, niche website business so I know a little about this (we aren't on the scale of these guys but do low 7-figures).
Wix and Squarespace at least are spending a ton on PPC customer acquisition. One analysis we saw put their AdWords spend at $10-25K per day (though, I'm not sure how accurate that is).
Also, both Wix and Squarespace advertise on terrestrial radio and television. Squarespace had a Super Bowl ad and I regularly see their ads on Shark Tank (ABC). I hear Wix ads quite often on AM radio.
Squarespace was on Inc's 5000 list in 2011 with 2010 revenues of 11.7M.
Wix went public recently. They had 2012 revenues of $43.68M with a loss of $15M [1].
In the "general purpose business website" space, I think all 3 (Wix, SS, Weebly) see it as a "winner take all / own the market" play (it probably is). So, they are all spending as much as possible to acquire customers.
Wix clearly isn't profitable. I doubt SqaureSpace is. I think it's admirable that Weebly is ... but I almost wonder if they need to spend more to compete.
- kawera 13y agoWon't you include Godaddy in the "general purpose business website" space?
- arbuge 13y agoIf you do, you need to also throw in Godaddy competitors like 1&1 etc. Many have website builders of their own.
- funkyy 13y agoafaik SS is claiming it is profitable and it was always breaking even. There was an interview somewhere where the owner said until recent the only outside money was $30K loan from his dad (I think it was one with Alexis Ohanian).
- zachb 13y agoGot a link? Wikipedia confirms the $30K loan from dad, but can't find the interview on google.
- funkyy 13y agohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGPj5SOUrn8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGPj5SOUrn8 I think thats the one. Anyways - imo its extremely interesting and worth watching.
- callmeed 13y agoThey raised $40M last week [1] ... $78M in total [2] Almost 300 employees, spending a ton on ad/marketing, and raising that much money–I can't see how they're profitable. I could be way wrong though. [1] http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2014/04/15/squarespace-raises-40m-to-expand-website-building-offerings/ http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2014/04/15/squarespace-r... [2] http://www.crunchbase.com/company/squarespace http://www.crunchbase.com/company/squarespace