Friday, November 17, 2006
Why open source: viral marketing and visibility
The second most asked question I get, when I talk about Funambol, is "why open source" (the first one being "how do you make money?"...).I believe I have spent few posts writing about the value of a community-driven development and, in particular, QA effort. The former being the best way to innovate and keep up with the unbelievable speed of the mobile market (linked to the Code Sniper program). The latter being the crucial element for a successful company in mobile, because it is simply impossible to test every phone on the market, if you are a proprietary company (this one linked to the Phone Sniper program).
Speed of development and innovation, combined with the widest device compatibility, high quality and support are not the only positive of open source. The other one is marketing and visibility.
Open Source is viral. If you build an open protocol open platform product with open source code (a GOOD one) and you are honest with your community, you will have a large audience. The audience will be a mix of developers and users. They will enhance it, create derivative products or simply use it. In all cases, they will simply talk about it. Blog about it. Whisper about it.
Below you see the graph taken from Alexa (which measures web sites traffic rankings) about the Funambol site, compared to the one of our competitors (although some of them are not really competitors, since they are focused on enterprises). We are the blue line...
We are a small company of 40+ people, which raised 5M in Venture Capital. Some of those in the graph are public, some raised 250M+, all have been around for ages. How can we be that much more popular than them?
It is called viral marketing. It is a phenomenal added benefit of open source. It will never stop, as long as you remain true to your open source roots and do not screw up your community. You can be public and spend millions in marketing, but you will never get that. You get it if you create a successful open source project. And it will cost you zero dollars.
Believe me, it is not easy. But once you get there, it feels good to look at that graph every morning and at our balance sheet at night ;-)
Posted by Fabrizio at 18:11
13 Comments:
关爱生命，关注糖尿病，为糖尿病患者带来福音！
反应釜
搪瓷反应釜
搪瓷
生物柴油
造粒机
造粒
搜索引擎优化
搜索引擎优化
糖尿病
鲜花
游戏币
非淋菌性尿道炎
疱疹
美甲
网站优化
买金币
魔兽金币
疤痕
游戏币
买金币
魔兽金币
室内设计
癫痫
液晶电视
等离子电视
网络电话
癌症
肿瘤
食道癌
肝癌
胃癌
肺癌
脑瘤
乳腺癌
直肠癌
恶性淋巴瘤
淋巴癌
食道癌的治疗
肝癌治疗
肺癌治疗
胃癌治疗
乳腺癌的治疗
癌症治疗
肝硬化腹水
肝腹水
肝硬化
Comment Posted at 06:29
加气混凝土设备
砌块机
模压瓦机
超细磨
粉碎机
砌块成型机
彩瓦机
木粉机
鄂式破碎机
反击式破碎机
锤式破碎机
破碎机
鄂式破
对辊式破碎机
加气混凝土
木屑机
制砂生产线
石料生产线
砂石生产线
加气混凝土砌块机
球磨机
选矿设备
磁选机
输送机
锤式破
烘干机
振动筛
制砂机
洗砂机
榨油机
彩色路面砖机
破碎机
橡胶磨粉机
破碎机
反击破
对辊破
破碎机
锤式破
Comment Posted at 09:47
国内各种优质产品guangzhou hotel,garden hotel guangzhou,asia hotel guangzhou,marriott china hotel guangzhou,dongfang hotel guangzhou生产的Screen Printing Machine有各种Screen Printing Machine丰富多样hot runner我公司大水处理设备和广泛粉碎机|粉碎设备|超细粉碎机运用在民用方面的冷却塔江乡袜子如苎麻同人风机扬摇粒绒|摇粒绒毯子扬摇粒绒|摇粒绒毯子扬磁力泵|自吸泵|计量泵|齿轮油泵|真空泵扬转子泵|管道离心泵扬隔膜泵扬漩涡泵扬排污泵苏扬控制柜通风机通风机州的量供应hot runner 铜管|黄铜管|紫铜管为广大来广州的朋友提供广州宾馆|广州酒店服务广州宾馆|广州酒店还有卷帘门摇粒绒印刷方面的丝印机中国针上海减速机|分割器|减速电机|减速器织犯得上减速电机减速器之风机|离心风机|柜式风机提高广州租车代顾客购买广州国际机票提供广州国际机票服务本公司研发的拉力机|试验机|试验设备|冲击试验机新真威生产的电子拉力机|实验机包括塑料的塑料试验机|塑料试验设备和橡胶的橡胶试验机|橡胶试验设备还有硬度计橡胶硬度计和密度计橡胶密度计老化箱老化试验箱还有硫化仪硫化仪|无转子硫化仪浙江生产的生产的粉碎机粉碎机|分级机及用在食品粉碎方面的粉碎机|食品粉碎机用在电路上的整流器上海优质产品鼓风机|风机|通风机|离心风机|轴流风机|屋顶风机>深圳提供网络安全上的电脑锁|软件加密|加密锁|加密狗加密锁|加密狗软件加密|加密锁广州运用在水资源方面的不锈钢水箱粉碎绍兴黄酒绍兴酒热流道pda皮套明新鼓风机通风机大唐袜业袜子大幅度丝网印刷机热饿额紫铜管|H59-1黄铜管 通风机电脑锁|加密锁|加密狗|软件加密抽湿机|工业抽湿机|去湿机总经销抽湿机|工业抽湿机|去湿机主要服务为提着销售华北地区最大的生产基地卷扬机其他产品卷扬机|滚丝机还有齿轮减速机|齿轮减速电机河北泵乡齿轮泵|螺杆泵|齿轮油泵 >北京有激光舞台激光|激光动画|激光演示|激光表演|激光租赁丰富经验伞|广告伞|沙滩伞如同ibm笔记本无纺布|滤袋|除尘滤布|单丝滤布|造纸网突然依然台电动滚筒依然台日语培训而犹同样无纺布|滤袋|造纸网额外人无纺布|滤袋|除尘滤布|工业用布|造纸网|离心机滤布|压滤机滤布|锦纶筛网|尼龙筛网|不锈钢冲孔网亚麻|苎麻如同热调查|侦探|调查公司而我调查
