GeckoFood's Journal: [misc] Ning is trying to kill off its customer base

A while back I went on a hunt for social networks and I found Ning, which is a network of social networks and some tools for creating new networks. It seemed like a nifty idea at the time and I joined a few networks. All was right in the world.

All at once I started getting emails from the group creators that the groups are going away. I looked into this and it turns out that Ning is eliminating its free service and everything is going to be pay-based. I suspect that MOST of their customers are going to abandon ship in search of something new, much like what happened to Talk City some years ago.

*sigh* So much for that.

Well...

[jawtheshark]

They're not really customers if they're not paying, eh? ;-)

Re:

[GeckoFood]

A lot of people using their services are going to drop them is what I meant. Ning has stated that, within a month, their free services are going away. They're not even going to offer basic stuff for free anymore. There will be a few that will pay, but most will not and will look for free alternatives. That's Ning's right, but I have a feeling they will not have enough paying customers to sustain their business.

FWIW

[stoolpigeon]

Pretty quickly after the CEO left and the COO took her spot they made the change. They also fired 40% of their staff.

According to them 75% of their traffic is from paying customers. So essentially they are dropping a minority that are dead weight and focusing on the people who actually pay.

Apparently Grou.ps and Grouply [techcrunch.com], among others, are happily picking up folks set adrift.

Of course this is the risk with anything that is free.

Re:

[arb]

According to them 75% of their traffic is from paying customers. So essentially they are dropping a minority that are dead weight and focusing on the people who actually pay.

I wonder how many of that 75% started with free accounts?