Ning is an online social media network platform for people and organizations to create custom social networks.
[Social Graph-iti](_blank)
The Economist, Oct 18, 2007 Ning was co-founded by
Marc Andreessen and
Gina Bianchini
Gina Bianchini (born 1972) is an American entrepreneur and investor. She is the Founder & CEO of Mighty Networks.
Early life and career
She grew up in Cupertino, California, graduated with honors from Stanford University, started her career ...
and launched in October 2005.
By June 2011 there were over 90,000 social websites running on the Ning Platform.
[With Revenue Up 400%, Ning Adds Paid Access Service](_blank)
Tomio Geron, Forbes, June 15, 2011
History
Ning started development in October 2004 and launched its platform publicly in October 2005.
by Martin LaMonica, CNET news, Oct 6, 2005
At its launch, Ning was a free-form platform for the development and hosting of open-source "social applications".
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 These three templates were later superseded by a single customizable application aimed at enabling anyone to easily create their own social network. This format proved popular amongst groups who wanted to create social media communities away from the popular platforms.
Ning was initially funded internally by Bianchini, Andreessen and
angel investors
An angel investor (also known as a business angel, informal investor, angel funder, private investor, or seed investor) is an individual who provides capital for a business or businesses start-up, usually in exchange for convertible debt or owner ...
. In July 2007, Ning raised
US$
The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...
44 million in
venture capital, led by
Legg Mason.
[Ning news: new investment round](_blank)
, by Marc Andreessen, blog.pmarca.com, Jul 9, 2007 In 2008 and 2009, the company announced it had raised an additional US$75 million in capital.
, by Marc Andreessen, April 18, 2008[Ning Raises $15 Million More at a–Yes, Really–$750 Million Valuation](_blank)
by Kara Swisher, AllThingsD.com, July 21, 2009
On April 15, 2010, CEO Jason Rosenthal announced that the free service would be suspended, and 41% of the employees would be
laid off
A layoff or downsizing is the temporary suspension or permanent termination of employment of an employee or, more commonly, a group of employees (collective layoff) for business reasons, such as personnel management or downsizing (reducing the ...
. Users of the free service had the option to either upgrade to a paid account or transition their content from Ning. In 2011, Ning was purchased by
Glam Media
Glam.com (formerly Mode Media, Inc. Project Y, Glam Media) 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 billio ...
and then officially acquired by
Mode Media
Glam.com (formerly Mode Media, Inc. Project Y, Glam Media) 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 billio ...
.
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. Ning provides several core features, including opportunities for monetization, integration with other social networks, chat, email services, forums, polls and analytics. Customers are also able to map a Ning social network to a custom
domain.
The social networks running on Ning's service are programmed with
PHP and the platform itself is built in
Java.
[Andreessen: PHP succeeding where Java isn't](_blank)
by Stephen Shankland, CNET News, Oct 19, 2005 Since October 2010, social networks using Ning can be administered through an
iOS
iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...
application.
[Just one more thing…](_blank)
Evan Goldin on October 20, 2010
In February 2018, Ning launched a monetization platform, enabling users to earn an income from their social websites.
See also
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BuddyPress
BuddyPress is an open-source social networking software package owned by Automattic since 2008. It is a plugin that can be installed on WordPress to transform it into a social network platform. BuddyPress is designed to allow schools, companies, s ...
*
Drupal
Drupal () is a free and open-source web content management system (CMS) written in PHP and distributed under the GNU General Public License. Drupal provides an open-source back-end framework for at least 14% of the top 10,000 websites worldwid ...
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Google Groups
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Yahoo! Groups
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ning (Website)
PHP software
American social networking websites
Companies based in Palo Alto, California
Companies established in 2005