Earlier this week, The Next Web covered HootSuite’s achievement of reaching the 2 million user milestone. Considering that the Vancouver-based company has stood the test of time while other social media and Twitter clients have either sold out or bowed out, this is a remarkable accomplishment. But there’s a lot more to HootSuite’s success than just being a great Twitter client; HootSuite’s rise is a testament to how a great idea that stays the course can reach great heights. And the heights it has reached compares with that of some pretty stellar companies that are also part of the software-as-a-service/freemium business realm.
HootSuite has seen growth to date that is on a similar trajectory to the widely popular Evernote, Yammer and Dropbox. The data below outlining Evernote’s, Yammer’s and HootSuite’s rise to 2 million users illustrates that there is significant market success of SaaS tools and Freemium business models.
Evernote and Dropbox have continued to grow rapidly after the 2 million user mark, and HootSutie shows definite signs of trending in the same manner. International growth is a key contributor to HootSuite’s user base, having sped this via community building, outreach and crowd-sourced translation.
HootSuite’s reach and trends (courtesy of Alexa) also rank with that of the aforementioned companies, as well as Dropbox and SalesForce, other examples of business using the SaaS and Freemium models:
Also worth noting is the relative growth rate of users on each of these services:
HootSuite beta Launch: December 2009
HootSuite 1 Million: November 2010
HootSuite 2 Million: June 2011Evernote Launch: June 2008
Evernote 1 Million: May 2009
Evernote 2 Million: December 2009Yammer Launch: September 2008
Yammer 1 Million: July 2010
Yammer 2 Million: Feb 2011Dropbox Launch: April 2008
Dropbox 1 Million: May 2009
Dropbox 2 Million: Sept 2009
While the data clearly shows that SaaS and Freemium models are fast becoming a widely used solution for many users, it also foreshadows something for HootSuite in particular: it may be the only third-party social media client left standing in the future because of how it has done — and continues to do — business.
Thanks for the great data breakdown Mike. We aren’t slowing down a bit and will keep crafting the practical tools to help make social media useful for businesses and enjoyable for enthusiasts.
awesome I paid $32.67 for a XBOX 360 and my mom got a 17 inch Toshiba laptop for $94.83 being delivered to our house tomorrow by FedEX. I will never again pay expensive retail prices at stores. I even sold a 46 inch HDTV to my boss for $650 and it only cost me $52.78 to get. Here is the website we using to get all this stuff, BidsNew.com
That is some awesome, awesome growth. I knew Ryan had done a great job building the company, but I didn’t know it was *this* great.
Congrats to the HootSuite team.
This is a great article. A good cheers to the evolving and rapid growing businesses in social media. I’m particularly impressed that hootsuite gained such a strong international following in such a short amount of time. Can’t wait to see what’s next!
Thanks Dharmesh! It’s been a fun ride.
http://www.ilove-shopping.org
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Congratulations from the boys at Indochino. Amazing story RH! These numbers are mindboggling amazing.
The Hootsuite guys are great and it’s testament to their vision that they went with the freemium version early on and stuck with it even when rivals were doing the opposite and growing faster.
I like (and use) HootSuite a lot, and I am a fan of the freemium model, and I love the comparison showing the growth of HootSuite’s free users alongside other companies. I think HootSuite is a great product and the team has done a great job building the product and an impressive user base. And these numbers are truly impressive, I thought Evernote was the king of speed in free adoption. Congrats!
But I take issue with the article calling this a “success”. Millions of free users is not success. Success is a solid business with revenue (and at least a trend toward profit). Without revenue, the company cannot last forever, and it is sales that really demonstrate the commercial viability and success of a company.
I know HootSuite has a paid version. I would love to know how many people actually pay for HootSuite and how much they pay on average. That is the true measure of success! Lots of companies amass a lot of free users but don’t make a business out of it. I am hoping HootSuite’s “success” is more than just free usage.
HubSpot (my company) has 3.6 million users of our free product (WebsiteGrader.com), but we have turned that into over 5,000 companies paying for our software and generating tens of millions of dollars of revenue (so far, and growing at 100% per year). It is not the 3.6 million users that demonstrate our success, it is the 5,000 companies that pay their bill every month.
I hope for the sake of the HootSuite product and the team that they are also experiencing the success of revenue!
PS – For fun, search for “underpants gnomes” on Wikipedia and check out their business model. :)
@Mike Volpe We are right on target with paying customers and growing on our own steam/income.
PS I often use the Underpants Gnomes story in my spiels along with the Tom Sawyer white-washing the fence anecdote ;)
Congrats to Ryan, Dave and all the Hootsuite team from a paying customer :)
I’ll be sure to wear my awesome glow in the dark Hootsuite shirt out for dinner tonight!
Thanks for a great tool guys.
Good to hear about how well HS is doing. I have stuck by HootSuite for over a year now and never regretted it. The only issue I have had is with the Android app. Experienced lag, error messages on trying to post, etc. Hopefully those have been ironed out.
But when it comes to the desktop — noone has been able to wean me off HS. Their regular updates with REALLY useful features, even for free users like me, are superb. Even got a few colleagues hooked on to HS.
PS: Just a tip, I use Mozilla’s Prism app to load HootSuite in a separate browser window.
@Mike Volpe Thanks for your comment, Mike. I think that my use of the word “success” in here is appropriate, as not all success is defined by dollars. The freemium model actually got me into paying to use Hootsuite, Dropbox and Evernote myself. I got a taste of what each could do for free, and wanted to elevate my usage by going paid.
I think that revenue is a sign of success, how much of it may be a measure of it. But on the web, many “successful” ventures haven’t made much revenue at all. Some lived on, many died. I think Hootsuite is going to be one that does the former.