Weebly Privatebeta Launch

  

Private and public beta tests are very different animals. They have different goals, strategies, and risks. While they’re very distinct, they’re also often confused, since both happen during the exciting period leading up to the launch of a product.

The table below gives a quick overview of the key differences between private and public betas so you can select the right type of test for your goals and situation. Do keep in mind that this is not an either/or situation. Many companies run both private and public beta tests to get the most out of each type of beta test prior to their product’s release.

Private BetasPublic Betas
OwnerProduct Management or QualityMarketing
AccessInvite by companyOpen or invited by other testers
ParticipantsDozens to hundredsThousands to millions
GoalsBugs, performance, accuracy, acceptanceMarketing, load testing, data collection
Feedback LoopConstant engagementMinimal (forums/email) or none
Feedback TypeBugs, features, suggestions, tasks, surveys, forumsBugs, forums, surveys, email, or none
Product TypeAll technology productsOnline games, websites, some apps
Also Known AsClosed beta, field trial, user acceptance testing (UAT), customer acceptance testing (CAT), customer validation, prereleaseOpen beta, marketing beta, stress test, load test
Tester QualificationsTarget demographic specific to productLimited or no requirements
DurationFixed time (weeks to months)Open length of time until release
IncentivesProject incentives for tester engagementNone
Product SecurityNon-disclosure agreement (NDA), test agreement, license agreementLicense only
RecruitmentStaged (recruit, select, NDA, test)Flat (recruit direct to access)
DistributionPre-release system or production-readyProduction-ready usually required
ExposureSecret and undisclosedPublic and promoted

Public beta tests serve a key role in the development of many products and can be a great supplement to a private beta testing program. For more on how to leverage public beta tests, download our free whitepaper below. Good luck with your next public (or private) beta test!

Working to be current and keep customer satisfaction, Weebly continues to update and implement new services. Below is a summary of some of its key accomplishments that are relevant to its educational use. 2006 - Formal development of Weebly begins. A private beta launch is made by invitation only and then later is opened up to the public. Seeing as it's a common worry, this post will address two related issues: how scalable is one web server? And should you launch a private beta? More scalable than you think. I'm going to qualify that by saying that if you don't program with scalability in mind or are an idiot programmer, this might not apply. I have been using weebly as my website since May 5th, 2004. I started with them when they offered wonderful phone service with free hosting. I just called them today (July 15th, 2016) to ask if they are having trouble with the server at about 2:15 pm Central time, because of the long lag time. In January 2006, Weebly’s formal development started. In June of that same year, the company announced its invitational beta release. Then, in September, the private beta was officially launched. A few months later, in January 2007, the company was selected for the winter startup program by Y Combinator, which is based in Silicon Valley, CA.

P.S. If you’re more interested in private betas, download our confidentiality whitepaper instead, which focuses on maintaining secrecy and handling beta leaks during your prelaunch testing.

(Redirected from Chris Fanini)
Weebly
Type of site
Web hosting service
FoundedMarch 29, 2006; 14 years ago (Beta)
Founder(s)
ParentSquare, Inc.
URLweebly.com

Weebly (/ˈwiːbli/) is a web hosting service, headquartered in San Francisco. Its parent company is Square, Inc. On acquisition in April 2018, Weebly had more than 625,000 paid subscribers.[2]

History[edit]

Weebly was founded in 2006 by Chief Executive Officer David Rusenko, Chief Technology Officer Chris Fanini, and former Chief Product Officer Dan Veltri.[3] 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. 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.[3]

Formal development of Weebly began in January 2006.[4] The invitational beta release was announced in June 2006.[5] The official private-beta launched in September 2006.[6]

In January 2007, Weebly was selected for Y Combinator’s winter startup program.[3]

In March 2007, Weebly re-launched with its 'WYSIWYG' editing interface.[7] 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.[3][7]

In 2008 Weebly added 'Pro' accounts and Google AdSense monetization features, as well as compatibility with Google Chrome and Safari.[8]

During its initial startup years, Weebly received criticism for its lack of CSS/HTML editing support, and in 2009 added this functionality. In 2010, the company added French, Italian, Spanish, and Chinese languages.[9]

In 2011, Weebly raised a growth-stage round from Sequoia Capital and added Roelof Botha to its board of directors.[10]

In April 2014, Weebly raised $35 million in Series C funding from Sequoia Capital and Tencent Holdings Ltd.

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.[11]

In October 2015, Weebly announced it would open a Berlin office in late 2015/early 2016 to offer European-based support and marketing.[citation needed] In April 2016, Weebly integrated JotForm software on its services.[12] On October 1, 2015, Weebly Carbon was released to allow plugin integration among other features.

In 2016, Weebly began to focus in on its ecommerce offerings with the release of Weebly 4 and Weebly Promote, an integrated marketing tool.[13]

As more sellers began using the company, the company created features for one click taxes, integrations with Shippo to streamline the shipping process, Facebook Ad creator, integrated email marketing and lead capture, abandoned cart features, the release of Mobile 5.0 to help sellers run their store from anywhere and deep integrations with Square payment processing.

In early 2018, co-founder Dan Veltri left the company to pursue other interests. In January 2018, Weebly hired its first VP of Brand, Alexis Contos, and her hire marked the first time the 12 person executive team was 50% women and 50% men.

On April 26, 2018, Square, Inc. announced it would acquire Weebly for approximately $365 million in cash and stock.[14]

Product[edit]

Weebly's free online website creator uses a simple widget-based site builder that operates in the web browser.[15][16][17][18] All the site elements are drag-and-drop,[15][18] and it automatically generates a mobile version of each website.[16] Storage is unlimited, but the service restricts individual file sizes.[16] 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.[19][20] Basic features for blogging and e-Commerce are supported: as of 2018, site owners could develop simple stores with payments through either PayPal, Stripe or Authorize.net.[2] Users can choose to incorporate advertisements in their pages, and visitor statistics can be tracked through an in-house tracking tool or Google Analytics.[16] Weebly also has integrated newsletter marketing features.[21]

As of 2020, Weebly was offered in 15 languages: English, French, Spanish, Italian, German, Portuguese, Polish, Norwegian, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Chinese, Japanese, Russian and Turkish.[22]

Public relations and sponsorship[edit]

In April 2012, Weebly co-sponsored a hackathon hosted by Pennsylvania State University titled the 'PSUhackathon.'[23] Rusenko and Fanini, who are both alumni of the College of Information Sciences and Technology, spoke at and judged the event.

Awards and recognition[edit]

TIME listed Weebly among the 50 Best Websites of 2007.[15] In 2011, Business Insider included Weebly into its '15 Cool New Apps That Are Crushing It On Chrome' list.[24] Also in 2011, David Rusenko, Weebly's CEO and co-founder, earned a spot in Forbes' '30 Under 30: social/mobile' list.[25]

Censorship[edit]

In December 2014, the Indian government blocked Weebly in India, due to fears that ISIS propaganda was being spread through the site.[26] On December 31, the site was again made available throughout India.[27]

Weebly also applies censorship to its availability with a wide selection of geoblocked countries where Weebly is unavailable to internet users. Site owners are unable to login from these geoblocked locations to administer the site just as internet users cannot reach the site. According to Weebly official support forum, the exact list of blocked countries is secret, but the employees confirmed blocking of Côte d'Ivoire, Iran, Russia, Sri Lanka, Turkey, Ukraine, as well as much of Middle East, West and Central Africa.[28]

Weebly Privatebeta Launch Page

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^Ha, Anthony (April 26, 2018). 'Square is acquiring website builder Weebly for $365M'. TechCrunch. Retrieved January 19, 2020.
  2. ^ abGagliordi, Natalie (April 26, 2018). 'Square buys website builder Weebly for $365 million'. ZDNet. Retrieved January 19, 2020.
  3. ^ abcdLevy, Steven (May 20, 2007). 'A Boot Camp for the Next Tech Billionaires'. Newsweek. Retrieved January 19, 2020.
  4. ^Guynn, Jessica (June 10, 2008). 'Weeblies aren't wobbling'. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved January 19, 2020.
  5. ^Veltri, Dan (June 29, 2006). 'Exciting Developments' (Press release). Weebly. Retrieved January 19, 2020.
  6. ^'Weebly private-beta launch' (Press release). Weebly. September 12, 2006. Retrieved January 19, 2020.
  7. ^ abRobinson, Blake (May 9, 2007). 'Weebly Launches blog Platform, Closes $650K Investment'. TechCrunch. Retrieved September 24, 2012.
  8. ^Adewumi, David (June 10, 2008). 'Weebly, a Simple web page creator,launches Adsense feature and pro accounts'. Venture Beat. Retrieved September 24, 2012.
  9. ^Ha, Anthony (February 24, 2010). 'Simple website builder Weebly goes international'. VentureBeat. Retrieved January 19, 2020.
  10. ^Botha, Roelof. 'Weebly: What we do'. SEQUOIA Capital. Retrieved September 24, 2012.
  11. ^Empson, Rip (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.
  12. ^Roy, Rohit (1 April 2016). 'Weebly Users Gain Access to Easy-to-use Form-Creator JotForm'. Martech Advisor.
  13. ^'How Weebly 4 Is Leading An E-commerce Revolution'. www.forbes.com. Retrieved 2018-04-25.
  14. ^'Square to Acquire Weebly'. Square, Inc. Retrieved 2018-04-26.
  15. ^ abcMary Murray Buner (July 8, 2007). '50 Best Websites 2007'. TIME Specials. Retrieved September 12, 2012.
  16. ^ abcdWeebly,Inc (September 19, 2012). 'Weebly'. iTunes Store. Retrieved September 24, 2012.
  17. ^Johnston, Mike (July 6, 2012). 'Weebly Review-The Website Builder that makes Web Design Fun'. CMS Critic. Retrieved September 24, 2012.
  18. ^ abRussell, Kate (February 15, 2008). 'Webscape'. BBC News. Retrieved September 24, 2012.
  19. ^'iPhone and Android Apps'. Weebly. Retrieved 27 April 2014.
  20. ^'12 Best Free Website Builders'. Retrieved 12 January 2018.
  21. ^Williams, Alex (January 9, 2020). '10 Best Website Builders (UK) in 2020'. hostingdata.co.uk. Retrieved January 19, 2020.
  22. ^'Company Info'. Weebly. Retrieved January 19, 2020.
  23. ^PSUhackathon (April 27, 2012). 'Sponsorship & Judges'. /psuhackathon.com. Archived from the original on April 27, 2012. Retrieved January 19, 2020.
  24. ^Hamburger, Ellis (May 17, 2011). '15 Cool New Apps That Are Crushing It On Chrome'. Business Insider. Retrieved January 18, 2020.
  25. ^'30 Under 30:Social/Mobile'. Forbes. 2011. Retrieved January 18, 2020.
  26. ^Stone, Jeff. 'Vimeo, DailyMotion, Pastebin Among Sites Blocked In India For 'Anti-India' Content From ISIS'. International Business Times.
  27. ^Sharma, Ravi (January 2, 2015). 'Indian government unblocks Vimeo, Dailymotion, 2 other websites'. The Times of India.
  28. ^'Weebly doesn't work in Russia'.
Launch

External links[edit]

  • Official website

Weebly Privatebeta Launchpad

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