Wix.com

Wix.com is a cloud-based web development platform that was developed and popularized by the Wix Company. It allows users to create HTML5 websites and mobile sites through the use of drag and drop tools online. Users can add features such as plug-ins, e-commerce, contact forms, email marketing, and community forums with their websites using a variety of applications developed by Wix and third parties.

Wix is built on a freemium business model, earning its revenue through premium updates. Users must purchase premium packages to connect their sites to their own domains, remove Wix ads, add e-commerce capabilities or purchase additional data storage and bandwidth.

Wix.com is an international cloud platform written in Scala for the creation and development of Internet projects, which allows you to design sites and their mobile versions in HTML5 using drag-and-drop tools. You can expand the functionality of sites through applications developed by Wix or third-party companies. For example, add social network plugins, tools for online trading and electronic newsletters, contact forms, blogs, etc. The service is available in 11 languages: English, Russian, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, Japanese, Korean and Turkish.

Wix works according to the freemium business model, offering the opportunity to create sites for free and develop them, gaining useful improvements. For example, Premium tariffs allow you to connect your own domain to the site, remove Wix banners, add an online store, get additional storage space, advertising coupons, etc.

History

Wix was founded in 2006 by Israelis Avishai Abrahami, Navad Abrahami and Giora Kaplan. The company based in Tel Aviv, with offices in San Francisco, New York, Dnipropetrovsk, and Vilnius, is backed by "Capital" investors.

The company entered an open beta phase in 2007 using an Adobe Flash based platform.

In April 2010 Wix had 3.5 million users and raised $10 million in Series C financing provided by Benchmark Capital and existing investors Besemer Venture Partners and Mangrove Capital Partners. In March 2011, Wix had 8.5 million users and raised $40 million in Series D financing, bringing its total funding to that date amounted to $61 million. In April 2014, Wix announced its acquisition of Appixia, an Israeli startup for the creation of native mobile commerce (M-Commerce) applications. In October 2014, Wix announced its acquisition of OpenRest, a developer of online ordering systems for restaurants.

The idea of the company is that the Internet should be open to everyone for free expression of themselves, development and interaction. Wix is headquartered in Tel Aviv, with other offices in Beersheba, San Francisco, New York, Miami, São Paulo, Dnipro, Vilnius and Kiev. The company received several rounds of investments from Insight Venture Partners, Mangrove Capital Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners and Benchmark Capital.

A beta version of the service based on Adobe Flash became available to US users in 2007. By April 2010, Wix had 3.5 million registered users. Wix earned $10 million in Series C preferred shares issued by Benchmark Capital, as well as Bessemer Venture Partners and Mangrove Capital Partners. A year later, in March 2011, Wix already had 10 million users and $40 million earned on preferred shares of the "D" series, which together totaled at that time $61 million.

Transfer to HTML5

In March 2012, Wix launched a new HTML5 site builder, replacing Adobe Flash technology. Existing sites built in Flash continued to be supported, but all new customers were directed to the new HTML5 platform.

In February 2013, Wix reported that the move to HTML5 was highly successful, helping to attract 25 million users and generating annual revenues of $60 million in 2012.

By August 2013, the Wix platform had more than 34 million registered users.

In March 2012, Wix launched a new HTML5 site editor that replaced Adobe Flash. At the same time, the editor on Flash continued to be supported, but all new users were directed to the HTML5 platform.

In February 2013, Wix announced the successful transition to HTML5, which allowed it to attract 25 million users and earn $60 million for 2012. In August 2013, over 35 million people used Wix to create sites.

As of March 2014, the Wix subscriber base was more than 45 million people. By 2016, the number of Wix users exceeded 85 million.

IPO on NASDAQ

On November 6, 2013, Wix had a public sale offer on NASDAQ, reaching around $127 million for the company and some shareholders.

Development in RuNet

In June 2012, a Russian-language version of the site appeared, and a month later - a Russian-language version of the Wix editor. As of December 2013, the audience of the service in Runet has 1.5 million registered users. Recently, the service has been replenished with such features as payment of additional functions via Yandex. Money, adding the "Share" button on VKontakte, the button like VKontakte and connecting cash payment when delivering goods (for owners of online stores).

Functionality

Wix provides hundreds of customizable website templates and a drag-and-drop HTML5 editor that includes applications, graphics, image galleries, videos, fonts and more. The templates are customizable: new functions and media are added, the style, colors, texts, background images, buttons, etc. are changed.

In addition, users are able to create their websites from scratch.

Wix has been named by many independent reviewers as one of the best free website builders (after Adobe Muse and Wordpress).

In October 2013, Wix introduced a mobile editor that allows users to easily customize the display of sites for mobile viewing.

Key Wix Features

• hundreds of free templates,
• free hosting,
• search engine optimization,
• connecting your own domain,
• optimization for mobile devices,
• adding external HTML -code,
• page protection,
• modules of a blog, online store (without accepting payment from Russia), list, image gallery, video and audio,
• posting in social networks,
• statistics blocks,
• site insertion,
• create pop-ups.

The main disadvantages of Wix

Lack of Wix representative in Russia. Wix suggests sending any complaints from Russian customers to an office in New York.

App Market

In October 2012, Wix launched the App Market to sell applications created by different companies using Wix's automated web development technology. The App Market offers free and paid apps, 70% of which goes to developers and 30% to Wix.

The App Market allows you to integrate features such as photo feeds, blogs, playlists, online communities, emails, and file managers onto the site. In the App Market you can find applications from Google, Yandex, Instagram, LiveChat, Shopify and other companies.

Arena Wix

Especially for those users who do not have free time to create their own site or do not want to understand the intricacies of design settings, internal SEO, external promotion when creating a site on their own, Wix launched the Arena Wix service. On the pages of this service, Wix offers users the opportunity to use the services of web designers who have left an application and successfully passed the selection for the right to be called Wix Pro ("Wix Professionals"). The pages of the service host portfolio and contacts of webmasters from all over the world (it is possible to search for an artist by country and language), offering services for the creation, correction and promotion of sites on the platform. Each of the webmasters has its own unique rank, assigned to it by the system, respectively, the value of the indicator directly depends on the quality of the contractor’s work and the number of work performed. At the same time, Wix does not regulate legal relations between the parties in any way, nor does it participate in pricing issues.

Vertical Solutions

In August 2014, Wix launched its first vertically specialized product, Wix Hotels, a reservation system that is fully integrated into the Wix website for hotels, hostels, B&B and holiday homes. Wix Hotels makes it easy to create and maintain inventory of rooms, manage prices, reservations and payments. Following this, the Wix Music solution came out in 2015, a platform designed to give independent musicians a way to market and the ability to sell their music online. In 2016, Wix Restaurants appeared a convenient solution for owners of cafes and restaurants. In June 2017, the Wix Art Gallery application appeared allowing you to sell your work and photos online. The application allows you to upload images in high quality.