Ning Update: Phasing Out Free Services

[John McDonald]

Hi,

Today we made some changes at Ning.  I want to share with you the email Jason Rosenthal, our CEO, sent to all Ning employees:

Team,

When I became CEO 30 days ago, I told you I would take a hard look at our business.  This process has brought real clarity to what's working, what's not, and what we need to do now to make Ning a big success.

My main conclusion is that we need to double down on our premium services business.  Our Premium Ning Networks like Friends or Enemies, Linkin Park, Shred or Die, Pickens Plan, and tens of thousands of others both drive 75% of our monthly US traffic, and those Network Creators need and will pay for many more services and features from us.

So, we are going to change our strategy to devote 100% of our resources to building the winning product to capture this big opportunity.  We will phase out our free service.  Existing free networks will have the opportunity to either convert to paying for premium services, or transition off of Ning.  We will judge ourselves by our ability to enable and power Premium Ning Networks at huge scale.  And all of our product development capability will be devoted to making paying Network Creators extremely happy.

As a consequence of this change, I have also made the very tough decision to reduce the size of our team from 167 people to 98 people.  As hard as this is to do, I am confident that this is the right decision for our company, our business, and our customers.  Marc and I will work diligently with everyone affected by this to help them find great opportunities at other companies.

I've never seen a more talented and devoted team, and it has been my privilege to get to know and work with each and every one of you over the last 18 months.

We'll use today to say goodbye to our friends and teammates who will be leaving the company.  Tomorrow, I will take you through, in detail, our plans for the next three months and our new focus.

Thanks,
Jason Rosenthal

I know many of you will have questions about this announcement.  We will share detailed plans within two weeks.

I feel confident that this change in direction will be very positive for our premium service customers because Ning will be 100% focused on delivering the features and services which benefit you and help you achieve your goals.

I will be here to answer your questions and respond to your concerns.   However, today I am focusing on my team, so there may be a delay in my responses.

Thanks,
John McDonald
VP Advocacy

[Roly O]

For Site Alternatives - (Thread) http://creators.ning.com/forum/topics/alternatives-1

[Garfield Creator]

Click the image to view the video. Warning: Bad language. Someone suggested I put this up so I accept only partial responsibility but I am linking to it so if you click it's your choice to experience my twisted humor. :-)

[Janettee McCrary]

LOL! I am the one who suggested it, I take the rest of the responsibility lol.

[Kris]

It sounds like a lot people here are saying ning should just drive it into the ground untill they have to layoff 100% of their staff becauses they some how feel as if their entitled to having a free network.

[Kris]

apparently not enough if people are being let go

[Michel Joseph Pétulli]

its sounds like we are saying to have both sides happy we need 2 sides of the site one white listed pay for side and one the social site free and pay per use as we already do for premium services as well as developping ideas and beta testing new things since many years now for some of us

[Roze Collins]

Actually, they just say staff reduction. We do not know the reasons. So that statement itself may be off. There have been many changes since around November. I personally liked it before all the changes better. But, that is only my opinion. It was simple.

[Thiago Santos de Moraes]

"A year ago i told Ning that some of us would like to use premium services but some of our credit cards dont allow international purchases and some don't have credit cards, i suggested they use similar payments methods like Google & Facebook, Direct bank Deposit or Debit Card Transactions. All we need is a swift code and account and we can pay. Paypal still isnt helping cause you need a credit card to use it. Till today not response...Spend money on delivery service and the money will come back." (x2)

I don´t have credit card and will not have, so I need a way to do a direct bank deposit to stay in Ning.

[Alejandra Casanova]

Personally I prefer Moneybookers because you can pay through a bank transfer of a credtcard if you have one. I hope they give us the possibility to pay with this one as well

[Garfield Creator]

It's all very simple the world is made of entitled spoiled freeloading ungratefuls and greedy unsympathetic capitalistic opportunists. There is no gray area or nuance in between (I mean how could there be *wink *wink) and they will continually trade barbs at each other back and forth and only declare ceasefire to stop occasionally to acknowledge Ning Staff for their generous contributions over the years.

There is no use trying to talk reason to either side (no matter what side you are on) because they will only look for information to confirm their original point of view. In fact, studies have shown that even if you present factual evidence to the contrary to the belief of the person you are debating that only reinforces their point of view more.

So please be aware of that in having these conversations you should try and have some fun and maybe sympathize with the other person because if you huff and puff out of an effort to get the other person to realize how stupid they are you'll only frustrate yourself and irritate them and only acerbate the issue. However don't take my word for it. Try it yourself. You may be that special individual who gets someone to admit their own stupidity and have them thank you for it.

[Andrew De Vera]

Well, I guess for those of us who can't or doesn't wanna pay for our networks, (regardless of the reason why we can't) we should better start transfering our contents.

Like they said, "pay or move out", I believe Ning won't really change their mind regarding the free networks phase out so why waste our time arguing here, its just like hitting a solid rock with an egg...

For those who are staying and paying, Good Luck, may Ning provide you with excellent premium service and that you may be extremely happy, as they put it.

For those who are transferring and moving out, Good Luck too, may we find something else better than ning.

[Roze Collins]

Agreed.