The founder of Netvibes is moving on. Tariq Krim is stepping down as CEO of Netvibes to “spend less time day-to-day” at the company and work on a “new project,” he tells me. (More details on that project later). He will remain on the board of the company and as a non-executive strategic adviser. Current Netvibes COO Freddy Mini will take over the helm as CEO.
“My role was to transfer Netvibes from a personal start page into a widget platform,” says Krim. He feels that the technical foundation for that shift has been completed with the recent release Ginger, the latest version of its site. Krim also reveals that, in an attempt to take on Google Gadgets, “All the technology around our widget platform will be open source.” The APIs and tools will be available on Friday at Netvibes.org. And they will also work for turning widgets into mobile apps.
Netvibes pioneered the widget start page, but fighting against My Yahoo and iGoogle is a losing battle. (Competitor Pageflakes recently sold itself rather than continue to go it alone, for instance). In April, Netvibes showed a dip in unique visitors worldwide to 2.3 million. My Yahoo had 43.7 million, and iGoogle had 22.1 million, according to comScore.
Krim at least realized that he had to turn Netvibes into a broader widget platform. But trying to win the widget wars against Google and others is not going to be much easier.
HOW DO YOU SAY “PWNED” IN FRENCH?
It’s not really a lot of traffic or uniques which is the problem
Yet another entreprenuer that got steamed rolled over by the greedy Google billionaires. Why start a tech company when Google will drain your blood or copy you.
It is really too bad if Netvibes doesn’t succeed, either on it’s own or as part of a bigger company. I have tried all three (my.yahoo, iGoogle and Netvibes), and honestly, my.yahoo is horrible, nearly impossible to use. iGoogle is ok, but not nearly as simple or elegant as Netvibes.
Here is hoping that someone (AOL, IAC, Microsoft) steps up and buys the site, and figures out a way to make money with it so it can stick around, not sure what I would do without it.
Interesting strategy is part right. By aligning with thousands of widget / gadget developers, the “platform” has a chance.
Whats lacking is the “cause” for an all out “call-to-arms” to beat the bohemoth. (Im reminded of an army of fire ants taking on a full size horse - and winning).
The key is cause and organization. I know of a company thats got the “cause” part right, and is looking for some technology architects to create “organization” and some great programming “generals” to lead the battle in what might be the greatest “open platform” battle to define the the future of the internet.
If your interested in joining the fight, visit my site and send me an email.
Thanks,
Allan Sabo
Alti Success Strategies
Experts at Integrating Social Media and Internet Marketing
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So deadpool in French is what? Lac des morts or piscine des morts. Just sayin
Tariq has always been a classy guy.
Good luck to you.
The widget wars are just beginning. Lots of companies have strategies. But in the end, no company will be able to control the widget economy. Widgets will “be the internet”.
Tariq, good luck for the future project buddy!
Well, I guess it’s just too hard to stay front with the mighty Googles and Yahoo!s
Tariq, good luck for your next project, let me know if I can help in any way buddy. Freddy, congrats on your new role.
Please save me a spot at your new startup in 4-5 years. We want to move to paris
Or are you coming to the valley?
Arf…
Tariq, sounds like a new step full of new opportunities. Hope to hear soon about you, in SF, London, or Paris.
I think that this move is the best news for Tariq.
With Ginger, netvibes can slow down for a while in developing new features, the widgets open source platform has been released what else they can do more in the forthcoming months ?
Tariq will be at last available for the several projects he wants to do and also for his friends or his family.
Last point netvibes will always be synonym to Tariq so it won’t be the CEO anymore but he’s definitly the Soul of Netvibes.
I used netvibes for a while and my yahoo. Now I use iGoogle as my home page cause it seems faster and I can search google right there. In the end a portal isn’t that much value to anyone.
Good luck with your next venture Tariq. It would be very interesting if you could create a blog post on your new blog about what are the key lessons you learnt during the creation of Netvibes and what you would have done differently.
“And they will also work for turning widgets into mobile apps”
MojiPage is a mobile webtop that runs netvibes widgets (plus yahoo mobile widgets and our own native widgets) on ALL mobile phones - with or without javascript support.
I remember when Netvibes and Tariq swore up and down that they had 10 million, 15 million, and then 20 million users. Sounds like the BS finally caught up to him, and the board figured out that hot air and ego will only really take you so far.
Had a great call a few minutes ago with Tariq discussing this announcement and next moves. Tariq will be back on the front scene in no time ! Good to see European entrepreneurship at work
I use netvibes. 1 of me is worth 20 million users. Sell that to your board and investors.
Where’s Microsoft in the Widget war?
@Andy - Microsoft’s strategy for widgets is MS Office
Wait, why did Krim “transfer Netvibes from a personal start page into a widget platform,”. Where.t.f. is the CTO? Maybe he should have spent his time on courting possible suitors.
Long live netvibes. If netvibes goes down, a part of me will die with it.
Sincerily, I didn’t knew (or care) about MyYahoo or iGoogle having more traffic since Netvibes is one of the most useful web applications ever created.
I’d really get sad if something happened to it
Does anybody remember Netvibes at all those conferences giving presentations that claim 12, 15, 20 million plus users? There were other stats like 20% of users have Netvibes open 24 hours a day, millions of new users each month. I was always a bit sceptical of those numbers, and I guess comscore just confirmed my suspicions.
At those same conferences I would wonder how they could turn something as generic as widgets into a business, especially trying to become a destination portal - and the whole time the only argument against me was that ‘it must be working, they have a billion zillion users’
Widgets will be, and are, dominated by existing destinations and existing platforms - like Google, Yahoo, Facebook etc. Building a business on widgets alone, I feel, is like building a business on something generic like web forms
I give kudos to companies like Netvibes and Pageflakes for going up against the big guys. Of course it’s tough against Google, Yahoo, etc. - but without startups and investors with the courage to do so, innovation would grind to a halt. Just think if back in the day that Google was scared of Yahoo, Lycos, AltaVista, etc….
Netvibes is far too slow to be a homepage. If your website has “loading…” anywhere it’s time to rethink your design. Sure it’s only a few seconds, but for a homepage I want instant access.
The bubble is bursting! These guys raised close to $20 million in VC…and only 2 million+ users in three years of trying? Netvibes and Tariq were at every conference in the US, Europe and everywhere else…threw lavish dotcomesque open bar parties at Web 2.0 Expo…and Tariq even spent time and money attending the World Economic Forum…I guess with Tariq gone, the burn rate will go down at least 70% without his airfare, hotel bills, party rentals and bar tab. None of that crap gets you users….
Too many assumptions from the above comments. I find it interesting that such assumptions are made to presume that widgets are the new internet or that Google and Yahoo cannot be surpassed. Everything is too new and technology is exploding too quickly for these assumptions to be made.
A person in Tariq’s position, with the knowledge he has gained and has access to, will not be making a move like this without a plan to move forward. I would assume bigger and better things to come.
Is this an end to Netvibes? Who knows, the Netvibe community will dictate that.
Good luck Tariq
Nice try.. business model is challenging… (other than users acquisition).
People still like monolithic style of presentations… very much at a loss of too many things on one screenful.
Good luck tariq. I am sure you ll move on to something great. Congrats to freddy too
if you ask for user counts and page impressions you not even get half the story. netvibes is ahead of time, they moved from the homepage portal to breaking down a webpage into a “universe” of networked mini-apps, with a seemingless experience troughout the platforms. this is still what apple, google, facebook, ning or microsoft have to achieve. the widget space is a total mess today. forget about flash and the rest, it will not escape the rich media box. kind of an “air bus” approach how to build complete websites based on industrial components. will the tech behind netvibes scale well enough? keep up the good work tariq!
I wish a good luck to Tariq and hope that his new project will be as exciting as netvibes. Tariq rocks!
Tariq did an amazing job. My Yahoo and iGoogle copied him. His growth curve is super impressive. I am a first round investor in Netvibes and will be happy to be a first round investor in Tariq´s new venture because Tariq is one of the best product guys in the world. Up there with Janus Friis.
VCs removed the heart and soul out of Netvibes
Good luck Tariq! Come to California.
From TC UK…
UPDATE: The backchannel to this story is starting to roll in and it doesn’t read all that good. Feedback so far is that:
1. VCs are pissed with Netvibe’s inability to find a revenue model
2. VCs want to sell the company, Tariq doesn’t. The VCs won so Krim left
3. Tariq is bored with a company that is a bit stuck in limbo
Another well placed source says: “I think we will see a second division sale in the near future (like Pageflakes).”
Anyone is in the position to comment on the above? I have no insider information at all but the pissed-off-VC theory wouldn’t sound so impossible to me. And in that case I really hope Tariq can get away with all his stocks… even if it sounds dubious, but it’s not my business so… good luck Tariq for your next project!
Shame about the Netvibes situation. Even though the loading times were a bit slow, the site looked much cooler than the horrendous iGoogle.
I still believe that there is a gap in the Start Page marketplace, for a smart player to show the whole community the value of creating one.
Have many ideas in this Start Page arena, which I would like to explore with other interested parties.
email me at jamesdvip@hotmail.co.uk
what #29 said… very true. it’s like 1999/2000 all over again.
If imitation is the best form of flattery, then Tariq and his team should be really proud of what they have done with Netvibes. I’m sure he will do great things again with his next project.
Good luck Tariq. You have built a great product.
@53 - Martin
Martin, Tariq and Netvibes did nothing to innovate the start page or widgets - they copied everyone else’s innovation. Consider Ginger - setup wizard (blatant ripoff of MyYahoo’s setup wizard that they introduced over a year ago); numerous features including published pages, on-page directory and even exact marketing messages and wording (all ripped off from Pageflakes); and widget platform and strategy (Google, Clearspring); facebook widget (ripped off from YourMinis); and too many others to list here. I know you are an investor and have to spin this, but saying MyYahoo and iGoogle ripped of Netvibes is just a complete lie that is the opposite of the truth, and is a slap in the face to us product people that worked on the real market leaders here.
I don’t know if I should feel sorry for Tariq or mad at him.
He’s built an amazing product which I love. I adopted it very early, I have it ‘on’ many hours a day, and I introduced it to dozens of people.
But… he’s failed to transform this wonderful product into a business, even with the support of some ‘big guns’ and ‘big mouths’ that he has as colleagues, or investors, or friends, or all of this combined (read: Accel, Martin Varsavsky, Loic Le Mur, Janus Friis, etc).
Now, the absence of a real, solid revenue model is his and his team’s fault only - not the VC’s. And I think it’s more than reasonable for investors to feel disappointed with the inability of the Netvibes team to monetize a broad base of loyal users.
This will very probably end with somebody buying Netvibes soon for several hundreds of millions of dollars, the investors AND Tariq making a nice exit, and moving on to the next big thing.
If that was the idea at the start, well done. But it would have been nice to see at least some of the innovation we saw on the product applied on the revenue model.
@confused:
You are seriously confused if you think a site with a shrinking user base and no revenues is going to sell for several hundreds of millions of dollars.