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Top 5 Slack alternatives that you should consider in 2020

Companies have increasingly invested in technology and tools to enhance workplace productivity. Slack has benefited from this trend as a provider of workplace messaging software that increases productivity by cutting down on unwanted emails. However, Slack users have now realized that emails are an integral part of an organization and it cannot be replaced solely by chat messages. 

In addition, complex integration issues with add-ons, high cost of ownership, and the “noise” created by frequent chat messages in Slack channels has made the ‘email killer’ a ‘productivity killer’.  

As per a finding by RescueTime, when Slack was down for a few hours on June 27, 2018, productivity increased! If the NPS and product-market fit scores of Slack are anything to go by, it is noticeable that a sizable segment of the user base is looking for alternatives. 

Here are some alternatives to Slack that offer the same value proposition but at a lower cost and with some unique features.  

  1. Wire 

Wire claims to be the most secure 100% open source, end-to-end encrypted collaboration platform with certifications from ISO, CCPA, GDPR, and SOX. Wire features include group messaging, conferencing, audio calls, file-sharing and search. It offers native apps for mobile and offers good customer support.  

The company also claims it can reduce emails by up to 43% when using wire pro as the collaboration tool. Wire supports all devices and operating systems. What is quite unique about this company is it is offering various deployment options for clients – private cloud or on-premise. The product also supports many third-party integrations. Yes, you can access Wire from mobile, tablet and desktop.  

 USP: World-class security. 

  1. Clariti 

Clariti is a powerful cloud-based work app that lets you work smarter and faster. It uses a path-breaking Thread methodology to automatically organize all your related work based on topics. Topics provide context as you do your day-to-day work, reducing stress from having to rely on memory and increasing your productivity. For instance, once you receive an email, you can start chatting with your colleagues from the email, without having to forward the message. Since the recipients see the same email message with your chat, they have context.
A Clariti Thread preserves the history of all work related to a topic be it through email, chats, to dos or even social feeds like tweets, so you can refer to it at any time in the future without having to do multiple searches. 

Clariti supports many other features including calendar, to-do, cloud storage integrations, built-in document folder, multi-format document viewers and world-class safety and security offered by AWS. Unlike other apps, Clariti has found a way to let you seamlessly work with all the tools you are accustomed to like email and chat, without having to use multiple apps. 

USP: Maintains context using Threads for all digital work 

  1. Riot.im 

Riot is another open source software that offers commonly used features such as voice calling, video conferencing, organizing chat rooms, and sharing files. You can even bridge-in users and groups from other chat apps into an ongoing conversation.  

Another added convenience is that it offers one-touch mobile voice and video calls and conferences. External clients or partners can join your audio/video call using the link that you share through the browser, without installing the Riot software. Riot is available for mobile and desktop platforms. Riot users can own their data by hosting in their own server or selecting one that they trust. 

USP:  Data ownership 

  1. Zulip: 

Zulip is yet another open-source software that facilitates chat between distributed teams.  Zulip uses topic-based threading model where every message has to have a topic which makes it easier for people to find relevant messages instead of having to browse through a plethora of messages.  

Zulip supports over 100 integrations and provides enterprise-grade security. Apart from all the in-built features including one-to-one chat, group chat etc, Zulip users can add other customized features to suit their needs as it is an open source tool. Zulip is available in both mobile and desktop versions and it supports all OS. 

USP: Threaded chat conversations 

  1. ChatWork 

ChatWork, a cloud-based communication platform for global teams, offers one-on-one & group messaging, file-sharing, video calling and task management through a single application. ChatWork targets less tech-savvy business professionals in the US market, who are looking for a simpler UI and features. One notable feature of ChatWork is it allows non-company representatives to participate in chat rooms. For example, a marketing manager will be able to interact with his company’s clients using ChatWork, without granting access to everything.  

It has a good task management system whereby you can assign a task to yourself and others so that everyone in the team knows who is responsible for what. Chatwork works across different operating systems and devices, providing ease of access. 

USP: In-built task management 

We hope this article will help you consider alternatives to Slack which may be a better fit for your needs. 

‪Read also –

Udemy Business Model – How does Udemy make money?

 Imagine the future!!!

You can access an unlimited team of instructors, everyone has good experience and expertise in their field. The instructor explains clearly about the subject and improves your skills. Also, the professional personal instructor will repeat the lesson without raising a complaint. Also, the team will advise you with the best price quote.

The future is here!!! It’s none other than Udemy. Whether you’re planning to learn a new skill or willing to explore your knowledge, Udemy is the right place for you.

Let’s discuss Udemy in detail!!!

What is Udemy?

Udemy is a popular and leading global marketplace for learning new skills. The platform connects students across the world to the professionals. Simply put, Udemy aims to help individuals reach their goals and fulfil their dreams.

Udemy was founded in 2010 by “Eren Bali”. Udemy is the one-stop destination for learners and instructors. The platform uses content from online creators and earns income. The ultimate goal of Udemy is the upgrade the skills of professionals.

Currently, Udemy is having

  • 35 million learners
  • 57K instructors
  • 130k courses
  • 65+ languages
  • 7K enterprise customers
  • 110M minutes of video
  • 400M course enrollment

Udemy says “80% of Fortune 100 companies trust Udemy for enhancing their employee skills”.

Udemy stats & facts: Funding & primary milestones

  • Udemy was founded on February 1st 2010.
  • Headquarters is located in San Francisco.
  • Major founders are “Eren Bali, Gagan Biyani and Oktay Caglar”.
  • $223 million is the total funding amount.
  • 27 investors
  • 900 are working for Udemy
  • Udemy works on “Marketplace Business Model”.
  • $2 billion is the total valuation at IPO.

How does Udemy stand out?

With advanced technology and current competition, everyone is looking to have an extra skill. This skill will help them to stand out from the crowd. Also, mentioned the skill on their resume will make up their skillset even more interesting.

Udemy is the perfect learning platform for all age groups. It’s the one-stop destination for the people who are planning to learn a new skill or improve their current skills. The best part of Udemy is, the platform has more than 130,000 courses. Sounds fantastic right!!! Few courses are absolutely free, but there are a few courses that are at discounted prices. Students will receive good guidance from professional instructors. Subscribing to the course will also have lifetime access. The courses are currently available in more than 65 languages. The popular courses are business, information technology, real estate, finance, web designing, music, photography, fitness and personal development.

As already mentioned, there are millions of learners and thousands of online courses available at Udemy, it’s clear that Udemy is earning good profits every year. If you want to know how Udemy is making money, continue reading…

Udemy business model explained

It’s no surprise Udemy operates on the “Marketplace Business Model”. Keeping it simple, Udemy organizes the services or products of different instructors and upload them on its website.

The organization works as a mediator between instructor and student. It doesn’t own a product or service. Hence, the cost is determined by the individual instructor on Udemy. Also, Udemy charges an amount of commission from the instructor for using its platform and connecting with a huge audience.

Consider a popular e-commerce website such as Amazon and Flipkart, which acts as a mediator between the customer and seller. These platforms earn commission on every referred sale.

As per the recent analysis, Udemy – the learning platform has raised approximately $223 million in 2020. The money is generated from different ways i.e selling courses, promoting instructors and more.

How does Udemy work?

Udemy – Academy for You

The place is the leading learning platform and marketplace available online. Thousands of instructors can get connected with millions of students. Here, instructors can teach students on the subject they’re experts in.

Following are the four key lines of Udemy

Convenience

Students have the freedom to choose the online course and attend classes according to their convenience. When an online course is available on the website, students can enrol to the course irrespective of their educational background. Also, they can enrol at any time. Moreover, there is a particular time limit, it means students can learn courses at their own pace.

Variety

There are thousands of online courses available on Udemy. Since the platform has linked professional instructors across the globe who are expert in a variety of subjects. The courses offered by Udemy range from business to lifestyle. It’s the student’s choice to learn and improve their skills whatever they need.

Cost-effective

There are few online courses on Udemy available for free. On the other hand, there are many courses at discounted prices, the courses are starting from $9 onwards. Sounds amazing right!!! Also, Udemy provides coupons and offers that help students to get the course at budget-friendly prices. There are multiple payment methods available at Udemy, students can make payments on their preferred payment gateway.

Certification

“Certification of completion” is what every student looks for. Udemy offers a certificate of achievement once the course gets completed. Make sure, the student should get qualified to receive a certificate from Udemy. The certificate of completion can be saved in various formats such as .jpg or .pdf.

How does Udemy make money?

As already mentioned earlier, Udemy is the leading learning marketplace with a good number of courses, students and lecturers. It is clear that Udemy is earning great profits and giving tough competition in the market. The revenue graph for Udemy is increasing every year.

Instructor fees

Did you know, there is no particular fee needed to pay by the instructor to upload their courses on Udemy? Yes!!! Instructors showcase their course for free. The company earns revenue whenever a user or student purchases an online course.

Consequently, the online course revenue will be shared with the specific instructors. It might be depending on how the student acquired the course.

There are 3 revenue share tiers available on Udemy

Instructor promotion

This is something interesting!!! The student will purchase the course using a coupon code or offer or referral link that is probably issued by the instructor. Since the student is purchasing the course through promotion, the instructor will receive 97% of the total course value. Also, 3% fee as an extra additional fee needs to be paid by the instructor to Udemy.

Udemy organic

Hope you’re aware of the term organic. Here the student will visit Udemy website, browse the course and purchase the course that they’re interested in. In this process, no coupon code or referral link will be used by the student while purchasing the course. As it is an organic sale, Udemy and the instructor will share 50% of the course revenue. In this scenario, Udemy will charge a 30% fee for every sale that is generated through Udemy mobile application. 

Paid acquisition

Paid advertisement is another way to increase sales. Udemy helps the instructor to improve their sales through advertising on other platforms such as Google, Facebook and more. Whenever a student purchases the course using paid channels, Udemy will take 75% on every course revenue. The instructor can choose promotional channels to promote their course.

According to the analysis, Few Udemy instructors are pretty unhappy with the promotions and selling their courses. There might be various reasons such as extra charges, pricing, advertising on multiple channels and more. On the other hand, Udemy is admired by most of the instructors as they’re earning millions of dollars every year by selling their courses on Udemy. Investors agree Udemy is a win-win solution to make money.

Udemy For Business

So far we have discussed how Udemy is making money from investors, now let’s discuss how Udemy is making money from the business.

Udemy for business, as the name implies Udemy is tailored for few established organizations and their employees. Companies will subscribe to Udemy for Business plan. With this program, their employees can access to 5000+ in-demand fresh courses at Udemy.

Employees can upskill their skills through virtual training. Udemy for business will empower the working experience. Employees can learn skills from global professionals across all the niche i.e tech, business, finance and more. According to recent reports, the business has grown 86% ROI after partnering with Udemy.

Udemy learning platform is offering two types of subscription plan for business. The subscription price may vary depending on the team size. For example, if a business has more than 20 employees, they need to pay $360/year and use it.

If your business is having a team of 20+, then you can choose the Udemy Enterprise plan. Contact the Udemy sales team and they will provide you with Enterprise subscription plan details. Furthermore, the Udemy Enterprise subscription plan is offering additional excellent features. It includes custom user groups, no language limitation, slack integration, custom categories, etc.

Conclusion

What is the best place to improve your skills? Which is the right spot to get thousands of online courses? Are there any free online courses? Udemy is the answer to all your questions. Udemy is offering free and paid online courses for students around the world. It is a one-stop solution for learners and instructors. Here learners can get access to thousands of courses and instructors can get connected to over millions of students. Udemy sells on-demand content to students and makes money. And the instructor is responsible for the course fee. The tuition charges may vary from one course to another course according to instructor choice. Also, Udemy is offering training to employees for popular organizations.

Udemy company is making good revenue from instructors and business. Here, instructors are earning 97% of their course fee when the sale is generated by instructor marketing. Udemy retains almost 50% of tuition revenue when the student purchases by its own website. Instructors will charge 30% of the tuition fee when the student purchase the course through Udemy mobile app.

Slack Business Model – How does Slack make money

Whether you’re running a small business or large enterprise, communication is the key to your business. It’s important to communicate with your team and clients to ensure your business achieve goals. On the other hand, effective communication is important within the organization. Good communication will help to encourage a positive relationship between an employee and an employer. This can improve employee work efficiency. If you’re a tech gig then you might surely know about Slack.

History

It all started in the year 2013!!! Stewart Butterfield is a professional software developer who designed Glitch online game. While working on the application, he realized the importance of having effective communication within the organization. This incident had led to the introduction of Slack. The tool is a powerful communication tool that is meant to handle and manage teams within the organization.

Introduction to Slack

Slack stands for “Searchable Log of All Conversation and Knowledge”. The application works like a chat room for internal communication. Therefore the team don’t need to waste their time on submitting the email. It’s no surprise email is the primary way to communicate and share important files, email is replaced by Slack. There are times where email doesn’t support large files. At that time, Slack is the best way to get your things done.

Slack is a popular collaboration hub!!! Here team can together communicate in a flexible way and complete task. Whether the team size is 10 or 100, they can effectively communicate within a single platform – Slack.

Many established organizations such as Microsoft and Windows use Slack for communication. Also, many businesses got subscribed to Slack. These businesses have noticed that Slack is the best tool for communication within hassles. This has resulted in Slack application raid growth within a short period.

How does Slack work?

Slack is an outstanding messaging tool that allows a business to collaborate with their team through “chat, phone, audio or video”. Users can communicate according to their requirement. They can communicate individually or in groups. Team members can create a group and exchange information while working on the projects.

Slack is available for desktop and mobile users. The aim of Slack is to help an organization communicate effectively across all the departments. Communication channels can be used for various purposes, a team can interact with their co-workers, share office location or send important files to other teams. All the conversations are stored in a Slack, the team can search for interaction anytime within a few simple clicks.

The principal of Slack is simple and straightforward “It brings collaboration at fingertips”.

Organized conversations

The interactions and communication flow in channels at Slack. User can create multiple channels according to their requirement. Here the channels can be created according to the size of the team members and projects that they’re working on. Creating a separate channel for individual projects is the best way to keep everything organized.

Trackable history

Everything is tracked at Slack application. Yes, you’ve heard it right. Slack will track everything i.e conversations, projects and more. Also, employer or team member can go back to check the previous conversation done in the channel. The information uploaded on the Slack application can be used for future reference.

Secure working environment

Business worries about their security while communication. Slack provides assured security and pushes away the worries. The application goes through two-factor authentication. Slack can be handled by authorized persons only. Therefore all the information and interactions are safe and secured under the hands of Slack.

Integrations

Slack provides a handful of integration to perform the processes even simpler. The integration set offered by Slack is making it stand out from the crowd. There are popular integrations is inbuild in Slack application such as Google Drive, Twitter, Dropbox and more.

Slack business model

Slack is an excellent way to communicate. Users can easily share files and communicate through video calls. Also, connecting to other application is simple and easy with Slack. 

Slack communication tool advertises itself as “Free to Use” software. Yes, you’ve heard it right. Slack follows “freemium business model“. Companies use Slack free version at initial stages. Once they’re satisfied with the Slack application, they can convert themselves as paying user. The premium plan offers advanced functionalities for business.

Over 750,000 business use Slack as their communication tool. Among them, more than 500,000 companies on the free version and upto 575 business are paying $100,000 every year for using advanced features offered by Slack in 2019. According to a recent analysis, Slack revenue has reached $630.4 million in 2020. It means the revenue has increased to more than 57% in 2020.

Recent Business Highlights

  • More than 110,000 are paid customers in 2020
  • Upto 25% growth year over year
  • Among the customers, more than 110,000 customers, 839 pay more than $10,000 every year
  • 70 customers pay more than $1 million every year

How does Slack make money?

Slack is the popular Saas communication application that allows the business to interact with each other either individually or in groups. As already mentioned, Slack offers a free version and premium subscription plan to small, medium and large enterprises. Let’s discuss how does Slack is earning money and shining like the star in the market.

Slack is offering four plan to make teamwork more productive. Let’s discuss them

Free

The free plan is perfect for a small team who have limited projects. Users don’t need to pay a single penny to use Slack free version. Users can access to 10,000 recent messages. The plan offers 10 integrations such as Google Drive, Office 365, etc. Also, the video call feature between team members.

Standard

The Slack standard plan is suitable for small and medium scale business. The standard pricing plan starts at $US 2.67 per month. Apart from free version benefits, users can get advanced benefits in Standard plan. Teammates can check history anytime and get access to ultimate integration. Conduct voice call with more than 15 team members.

Plus

If you’re running a large organization and looking for extra administration requirement, Plus is the perfect choice for you. Slack Plus plan to start at $US 5 per month. The plan includes amazing features such as 24X7 customer support, data exports, custom messages, security, 99.9% uptime and more.

Enterprise Grid

Enterprise Grid is the one-stop solution for the extra-large organization. Slack enterprise grid is offering eye-catching features for organizations. It includes large scale collaborations, a business can connect upto 500,000 teammates, streamline administration activities, tailored support and more. If you’re looking for Slack enterprise grid pricing, contact the sales team.

Who are Slack’s paid customers?

There are four key paid customers for Slack such as

  • Individual business owners
  • Freelancers
  • Large organizations
  • Multinational companies

Companies on Slack are of various sizes. The users are working around the globe from various industries. Slack is the best option for all type of industries such as technology, finance, health, rental service and more.

Following are the number of paid customers of Slack

  • 2017 – 37,000
  • 2018 – 59,000
  • 2019 – 88,000
  • 2020 – 110,000

It’s clear that every year Slack paid customers are increasing.

Is Slack sustainable?

It’s a well-known fact that Slack has gained massive popularity from the past few years. With flexible and amazing functionality, Slack has stood as an effective communication tool for business. With the flexible working environment, high-security, sending large files, ease interaction and more. Slack unlimited integrations are helping teammates to increase their work productivity.

Every coin will have two faces, Slack has few dark shades as well. There are few cons for Slack, let’s discuss them,

As already discussed, Slack has an effective channels to communicate internally. For a non-tech-savvy, working with Slack and communicating in the chat room can be difficult task. Slack has few functionalities when compared to other communication tools. Yet, the application perform perfect as it can.

The annual income of Slack has reached to more than $630 million in 2020. Though it’s earning good profits, the biggest issue is the operational cost. Yes, it’s true. Slack operating cost is pretty expensive, it’s around 49% on annual revenue. This might raise question on Slack sustainability. Since the organization spend maximum percentage of it’s income on sales and marketing. Therefore it can be difficult to say that Slack will run profits in the future.

Conclusion

Without proper communication, no business can reach its goals. Slack understands the importance of communication, therefore it has introduced the best communication tool to help business. The slack tool was introduced in 2013. Slack is making good profits every year. As the communication tool is offering 4 plans such as free, standard, plus and enterprise grid. Apart from the free plan, Slack is charging for other plans. These plans are offering advanced functionalities. The company has is more than 110,000 customers. The popular paid customers are individual business entrepreneur, freelancers, large organizations and multinational companies. The annual turnover has reached $630 million in 2020.

Facebook Business Model – How does Facebook Make Money

Facebook-Business-Model-How-does-Facebook-Make-Money.png

It’s no wonder, Facebook is one of the most crowded social media sites on the earth. With more than 2.7 billion monthly active users over the world as of 2020, it’s no doubt that Facebook is raking billions. Moreover, around 400 new users sign up to use the site every minute.

Facebook is one of the Big four tech companies”, Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Alphabet, that owns other successful brands and companies. Hence, it is clear that Facebook is making good profits year-on-year. But do you wonder how exactly it works, what is its business model and how it makes money? If yes, this article is for you. Go on reading. This article walks you through interesting topics about Facebook.

Let’s first start with how this brilliant social media site works and know its features and products.

Products of Facebook

Facebook which was started with no intention to make business was founded by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004 in a dorm room.

The platform was built to help people connect and communicate with their family, friends and community. But no one thought it would become a great host for businesses to connect with their customers. In fact, Facebook users use this giant platform to verify brands.

This way Facebook has become a giant platform to communicate with anybody of their interest from anywhere in the world.

Facebook created its own eco system by launching its new products and features and acquiring other companies.

Its own products include Facebook mobile app, in-browser, Messenger, Instagram, Oculus VR. Not to mention about its features, Facebook keeps on upgrading itself with new features and user experience.

How Facebook Works?

So, now coming to how Facebook works, the platform has over 2.7 billion monthly active users and its product, Messenger has over 1.3 billion monthly active users. Despite owning multiple successful products, Facebook works in a quite simple way. 

  • It lets web users create accounts and use the platform either on a web browser or mobile app. 
  • Facebook lets its users access its innovative features such as Facebook groups, marketplace, events, Messenger, etc for free.
  • It introduced self-serve ad platform, where anybody can place ads on news feed, home, stories, etc

Features

Thus Facebook is a revolutionary website that totally transformed millennial’s lives (of course, adults and the elderly also use Facebook). At least 25% of the world’s population use Facebook. It’s features liking, commenting, sharing and messaging made people go more open on the platform. However, despite new features like IGTV, ads, Facebook has never compromised its core purpose of letting people connect with its community more smoothly.

Moreover, Facebook offers a great entertainment platform for its users with infinite scroll like Netflix is for binge-watch. There is no end for the content as there are a huge number of creators on the platform. In fact, this is how the company started making more money. With a billion audience-base, Facebook turned out to be a sweet spot for advertisers and businesses to promote their brands. And that is why you are seeing the ads on your feed today.

Okay, let’s see more about this in Facebook’s business model.

Facebook Business Model

As per stats, Facebook generated a total revenue of 18,687 millions with a Year-over-Year change of 10% as of 30th June, 2020. You will be surprised to know that of total revenue, over 98% is generated from advertising. 

However, this is not only the year that made the majority of revenue from ads. Its revenue has been increasing year over year since its 2009. It launched Facebook Ads in November 2007 for businesses to connect with their users and drive more customers to their business. 

In 2006, 2007 and 2008, it had experienced loss from $153 to $56. Only in 2009, it made a profit of $290 million on $777 million in revenue, Since then, it never looked back.

The social media giant had made brilliant acquisitions and mergers that only made profits for it. Today it owns a few profitable companies as mentioned in the first part of this article.

Facebook’s Revenue Streams

Thus, the company has multiple income streams to generate revenue. However, Facebook, though is transparent about its earnings, never disclosed how much it makes from each of its companies. Yet, it was stated that most of Facebook’s revenue (nearly 90%) comes from Instagram. Read about that in Instagram Business Model here.

Hence, Instagram is one of its genius acquisitions as it generates billions of revenue for its parent company, Facebook.

Despite all those, Facebook itself has its own business strategy to manage its expenses, that is advertising, which in turn is a strong income stream.

Introduced in 2007, Facebook Ads served millions of users and helped millions of businesses to grow and employ more people according to its founder, Mark.

Facebook makes money whenever a user clicks, views and scrolls through the ad.

It goes without saying that Facebook has created a great opportunity for small businesses to reach more and more people after Google. Because before Facebook and Google Ads, there were only television and newspapers ads that were unaffordable for small businesses. This way, the two social networking platforms, helped people a lot while creating their mark.

Enough said! Now, lets see how Facebook makes money with this business model. Shall we?

How does Facebook Make Money?

So, we are here at the most interesting part – how Facebook makes money.

Okay, it is pretty clear that Facebook makes money from advertising. Let us see how exactly it monetizes its space as an advertising platform.

As said, in 2007 Facebook introduced Facebook Ads. Meaning, it started selling its own space for advertisers to promote their brands. The ads include the purposes – brand awareness, making sales and launching new products. However, most of the ads are “pay-per-click”. It means, advertisers have to pay money for each click by users.

Advertisements

There are multiple ways the ads can be displayed on Facebook website and mobile app.

  • Photo Ads
  • Video Ads
  • Slideshow Ads
  • Dynamic product Ads
  • Carousel Ads
  • Instant Experience Ads
  • Story Ads

So, this is how this large social media platform makes money from ads.

User’s Data

There is a controversy that Facebook sells its user’s data. However, this is not true. 

Facebook doesn’t sell the user’s data though it owns huge data of its users. Yet it makes money by offering the data for advertisers for showing their ads to potential audiences.

Again, offering data for advertisers is truly for a good reason. This way advertisers can target their potential users and grow business without disturbing other users. Most importantly, it serves its users with related and relevant ads along with endless feed. This way Facebook users can get to know about their essential and necessary products and services for free without any effort.

Its Products

Facebook’s products, WhatsApp, Instagram, Oculus etc., have strong business strategies that bring billions of money to their parent company. As said there is no count of how much exactly these companies individually contribute to Facebook. However, as the companies are big brands and making profits, Facebook is making a good deal from those.

Other Revenue

Other revenue includes net fee charges from developers, revenue from hardware device sales etc.

How much does Facebook Make?

Now coming to how much Facebook makes, the platform generates 98% of its revenue from advertisements. Only 2% of revenue from other sources such as fees from developers, delivery of consumer hardware devices etc.

Facebook earned $18.3 billion in advertising revenue in Q2 2020 as per its reports. It even stated that its ad revenue grew by 10.2% in Q2 2020 compared to the Q2 2019.

It made $366 million in non-advertising revenue in Q2 2020. This revenue grew by 39.7% compared to Q2 2019.

Facebook’s Expenses

It paid nearly $2 billion for the U.S Federal Trade Commission as legal expenses related to data privacy issues. It also had to pay out $1.1 billion as a one-time tax expense.

Additionally, it incurred around $12,724 million total costs and expenses in 2020.

Thus, overall, Facebook’s net income in Q2 2020 is only 1.4% up compared to Q2 2018.

Key Challenges for Facebook

Like most other companies, Facebook didn’t go without challenges or criticism.

In July 2020, nearly 1000 companies and groups including CVS Health Corp., Coca-Cola Co. boycotted advertising on Facebook . It was to pressure the company to stop spreading misinformation, false and hate speech on the platform.

In March 2018, it was reported that a political consulting firm had accessed millions of user’s data illegally to influence voters to support Donald Trump during his campaign.

In October 2020, the House of Judiciary subcommittee on antitrust, after a 16-month investigation, reported that the big four companies Apple, Amazon, Alphabet and Facebook are dominating the industry.That, as a result affecting the U.S democracy, and economy.

Apart from all these, Facebook was not a single company to see downfall as a result of shutdown of the world due to pandemic.

Bottom Line

So, this is how the giant and incredible social networking site, Facebook, a synonym for binge-scrolling makes money. Hope you have got an idea of Facebook’s business model and how it works. Though it has powerful competitors such as Google whose major revenue model is also ads, Facebook with its large user-base keeps up its position as a profitable company. Again, as the company operates in a “hacker’s way” (meaning, it never hesitates to test and try things), it finds its own ways to make more profits.

Read: How does Google Make Money – Google Business Model

Vimeo Business Model- How does Vimeo make money

What is the first online sharing platform that you have used? Youtube or Vimeo. Over the years, Youtube has become one of the most popular platforms to share videos. But Vimeo is the first platform to introduce High Definition videos to the online video sharing platform. Since its launch in 2004, it has managed to stand against its competitors and still stay relevant. 

With more and more video sharing platforms making an entry into the market, Vimeo is still making its mark by offering their ad-free high-quality watching experience to its users. With 15 years in the business, everybody knows about Vimeo but still let’s start from the basics.

Vimeo

It is a video sharing platform where users can share, upload, view, and promote videos online. Vimeo was founded back in 2004 by the founders Zach Klein, Jake Lodwick. This platform is the right example of necessity is the mother of invention. Yup, Vimeo was born out of necessity. The founders have built this platform because they were not able to share their videos online. The inability for a platform to share the videos online has given birth to the Vimeo.

Fun fact: Vimeo is the clever play of words video and me.

Vimeo was earlier to the market then Youtube by months. Youtube was launched in 2005 and Vimeo in 2004. Vimeo has a strict upload process compared to Youtube. This could be one of the reasons why Youtube has gained more popularity than Vimeo. Soon Vimeo has realized it and has made changes to their strategy. It has started offering users with amazing features along with ad-free experience for a price. With all this being said aren’t you curious about the business model of Vimeo and how it makes money? Yes, then stick till the end of this article to find out. 

Vimeo business model 

The business model of this platform is B2B i.e., Business to Business. It is mostly used by businesses, content creators, professionals. They upload their videos to the platform. Vimeo offers features that are more helpful for companies and businesses rather than individuals. This platform is not based on the advertisement model because it earns money from the paid accounts.

This is where Youtube is a little different from Vimeo. As you know on Youtube the creators can upload their content for free and whenever the audience views the advertisements on their video they make money. 

This strategy has helped this platform to stand out among its peers. It has not employed an advertisement based model. This factor has become their selling point and helps them to attract a lot of viewers from their competitors. Over time it has established itself as a go-to platform for companies and professionals to showcase and share their content. Also not to forget that they are the first platform to offer the high definition videos and content. 

Simply put, this is a perfect platform for businesses who are looking for a site to showcase their talent and skills. They can showcase their products and services and increase their reputation. With all these things said you would have understood that people don’t just accidentally end up using this platform. They choose to become part of the Vimeo family. They come to this platform because of its amazing features and high-quality videos or content. 

Key partners of Vimeo

Now that you have understood the business model. It is time to talk about revenue sources. However, you must first understand their key partners or contributors who use the platform.

The key partners of Vimeo are the viewers and content creators. 

Viewers

Usually, every platform has two types of users i.e., content creators and viewers. It is the same for Vimeo too. Viewers are people who view all the content that is uploaded on the platform. Since Vimeo is an ad-free platform the viewers do not account for the income stream of the Vimeo. 

Content creators 

Content creators are the backbone of this platform. They are the users who create, share, and upload the content on Vimeo for viewers to watch. To help you understand they are the primary source of income for Vimeo as they use various services offered by the platform to create and share the content.

How does Vimeo make money?

As you have already read about the Vimeo business model and the key partners of this platform. Aren’t you curious about their revenue model? You’re right? In this section of the article, you will find out about the income sources of this platform. 

Since you have made it this far you would have already understood that Vimeo makes money from their premium accounts. But if you think that is the only source of revenue then you’re highly mistaken. It also makes money through other video-related services. 

Premium Accounts 

This is one of the major sources of revenue for Vimeo. It offers different subscription plans which include basic accounts. The basic account is free. Apart from this plan, it offers Plus, Pro, Business, and Premium. 

Basic

Although the basic account is free they come with a lot of restrictions. Anybody can create and use this plan until and unless they don’t breach any restrictions. Some of the restrictions are it comes with 500MB per week upload space along with 5GB total account storage. This plan comes with basic analytics and embedding features. Along with the ability to download and convert video files.

You can also protect your videos with privacy controls and password protection. With a basic account, you cannot upload more than 10 videos in a day. You can create 1 channel, 3 showcases, and 1 group. This account is the best plan for people who are interested to check out and understand how Vimeo operates without any commitments.

Plus

The plus subscription plan provides users with 5GB per week and around 250 GB per year upload space for one user. It offers a trial version so that users can make their decision based on your experience. This is one of the major revenue sources for Vimeo along with other subscription plans. As you know the difference between Vimeo and other video sharing platforms is that it offers excellent high-quality video ad-free.

And also it has become an excellent platform to share their skills and expertise. So there are many businesses and media houses that are taking up this subscription plan to create and share their content. The plus plan costs around $84/year.

Pro

Pro is also one of the four subscription plans offered by Vimeo. As you know the premium accounts are a major source of revenue for Vimeo. This subscription plan is more suited for professionals. The users will get 20GB or 1TB upload space for three users. With this plan, you can collaborate with your team members to create, share, and upload the content. It allows 3 team members to use the platform. The plus and pro plans are more likely suitable for small businesses or individuals. This plan costs around $240 per year.

Business 

This plan is more suitable for large businesses or corporations that need a lot of upload space to create, share, and upload videos on the platform. It has no weekly limit on upload space. The users will have around 5TB per year to upload their content. Also, it allows 10 people to access the platform to collaborate, create, or upload high-quality content to the platform.

Vimeo’s business plan costs $600 per year. Since businesses are in constant need of a platform that allows them to create exceptional content, share and upload it.

Premium

This is one of the most costly plans with excellent features. This is also an excellent plan that is perfect for large businesses and corporations that need a lot of videos that need to be created and shared. This plan is similar to the Business, Pro plans. However, it offers unlimited live streaming. It provides 7TB total storage for the users for a year. Every plan has a different level of personalization.

Vimeo on demand 

As mentioned above apart from premium accounts it also offers different video services to its users. One of such services is the Vimeo on demand. This service is specially offered for the pro members. The main purpose of this service is that it gives the members the ability to rent or sell videos to their audience directly.

This plan was not part of Vimeo since its inception, it was launched back in 2013. Another good thing about this platform is that members can design their video player, which includes logos and artwork. It also allows users to subscribe to their favorite creators so that they can access their work without any restrictions. The revenue of this service comes as Vimeo takes 10% of the revenue along with the processing fees.

Vimeo Enterprise  

If you think Vimeo only offers subscription plans then you’re wrong. Apart from the subscription plan, it is also offering Enterprise. Wondering what is the difference between the subscription plans and Enterprise plans? Each of these subscription plans provides tailor-made solutions for a particular type of business. However, Enterprise is a one-stop destination for a major corporation. It is suitable for businesses that have a lot of personnel working and have needs that can be packaged by a single plan.

It offers Live streaming, Marketing, Video management, Audience interaction, Analytics, and security. The businesses can easily handle their customers and employees with this plan. Also, the enterprise plan dont have a fixed price. Since it provides solutions based on the client requirements the price also changes.

Vimeo Stock 

Vimeo stock is different from Vimeo on demand. The stock is a marketplace that provides the users with royalty-free footage for a price. Since the users need footage to create the videos they can pay the price and get all templates and footage and build their projects quickly.

The revenue division is also fair and square. Contributors get around 60-70% of the revenue and Vimeo takes 30-40% of the revenue that the video generates.

You can see that this is one of the most important revenue streams for Vimeo as it will bring in a good portion of revenue.

Vimeo Over-The-Top

Vimeo OTT or Over-The-Top is the service that allows the users to launch their subscription-based services. It provides them with all the tools the users need to actually start the subscription services. Simply put, the users can start their own subscription platform or services using Vimeo.

People who enjoy your work can subscribe to your subscription services. From word-class video player to seamless payment processing they offer a bunch of different services that will help the businesses.

It also provides services that will allow you to deliver your video on different platforms. The customer support will provide you with the best service. They are available around the clock to resolve user issues. Users can also manage their growing video library with ease. It also offers migration services. Simply put, you can transfer your videos, services along with customer data. Under this service, Vimeo is offering three different plans, they are standard, Standard+Apps and Enterprise. 

Standard- $1/month per subscriber

Standard+Apps- $500 and up. And it is specifically tailored based on your needs. 

Enterprise- This plan comes with advanced features and for price details, Users must contact them. Leave them a message and they will contact the users.

Wrapping up

In recent times, with the evolution of the internet and technology more and more video-sharing platforms have taken birth. Most video streaming platforms now are based on advertisement models. Vimeo is the only platform that is offering an ad-free experience. No matter how many competitors have come and gone.

It is still staying true to its words and is offering pure services to its users. Hope you have got insights on the business models and the revenue streams of Vimeo. Are you interested in knowing more about other business models? Then check out other articles in the business models section