Is the real-time web just Silicon Valley buzz built up by hype-masters aiming to cash out? Good evidence otherwise comes from Woopra, an upstart real-time website analytics company that today announced that it’s taking off its Beta label.
Founded in Lebanon and now international, Woopra said today that the service will lift previous account size limits, will offer paid user accounts and will limit free accounts to by invitation only. CEO John Pozadzides recorded an awesome video that’s both humble and inspiring. We learned about the announcement from the blog ArabCrunch, and that blog’s coverage is today’s Real-Time Web Article of the Day.
We’re highlighting one article off-site each day that we think is the most important discussion of the real-time web, leading up to the October 15th ReadWrite Real-Time Web Summit.
ArabCrunch editor Gaith Saqer explains the importance of Woopra’s announcement today in his coverage.
- Seeing a Lebanon-founded company taking this step in the red-hot real-time web market is a great data point about the international nature of the real-time web movement. Woopra’s CEO is now in Dallas, Texas.
- The product is priced higher than some ostensible competitors, but its availability as a desktop client for Windows, Mac and Linux computers is very appealing for some users.
- Monetization of consumer-level real-time web products, outside of advertising, is itself newsworthy.
Look at how charming that video is! The CEO identifies himself only as “John P., one of the team members at Woopra.” It’s a really frank explanation of how the company is just looking to become cashflow neutral. Imagine, someone humbly asking a relatively small community of software users to pay so that the company’s staff can simply sustain itself. What a radical departure from the typical startup CEO pitch you hear from companies on the bleeding edge of web trends!
Woopra clearly prioritizes authentic communication with its users. The company hired well-known WordPress consultant Lorelle VanFossen to be the company blog’s Editor in Chief.
Woopra watchers can’t be surprised by the announcement, the way it was made or the seemingly very positive reaction from the Woopra community. As Mohamed Marwen Meddah explained on StartupArabia today, “All this of course is a natural step forward for Woopra, that was in the plans from the beginning, in order to start generating revenue, cover the costs of their infrastructure, and make the company and service sustainable.”
This kind of attitude is more than welcome at the forthcoming ReadWrite Real-Time Web Summit. There will be plenty of real-time rock stars there but riding the wave of change that the pushbutton web will bring and building sustainable businesses are both valid ways to engage as well.
