Comments on: Netvibes CEO Steps Down; Widget Platform Will Open Up

By: Should Netvibes/Pageflakes have been Friendfeed before Friendfeed? « These two cents

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 20:31:30 +0000

[...] model and was sold to LiveUniverse for pennies on the dollar, and Netvibes has had it’s fair share of turbulence and still have yet to find a business model, despite a solid user [...]

By: Netvibes Gets All Digg-Like With Buzz

Netvibes Gets All Digg-Like With Buzz — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 21:49:20 +0000

[...] been formally announced yet, but this is the first new feature we’ve since Tariq Krim announced he was stepping down from his CEO [...]

By: Jacques FROISSANT Altaïde

Jacques FROISSANT Altaïde — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 16:14:08 +0000

Le scoop du jour : Tariq Krim quitte Netvibes!…

Tariq Krim, l’emblématique patron de Netvibes, quitte la société qu’il a fondée pour laisser la place à Freddy Mini (qui est un mec super!), auparavant DG de Netvibes basé à San Francisco. Tout le monde va en parler, y aller de sa petite polé…

By: No wonder you're confused

No wonder you're confused — Fri, 30 May 2008 03:39:33 +0000

@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.

By: confused

confused — Thu, 29 May 2008 17:19:41 +0000

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.

By: Fendi

Fendi — Thu, 29 May 2008 16:22:50 +0000

@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.

By: Tariq Krim and new Netvibes CEO respond to rumors

Tariq Krim and new Netvibes CEO respond to rumors — Thu, 29 May 2008 14:07:22 +0000

[...] Thanks for visiting and hope you come back again! Last night, TechCrunch’s Erick Schonfeld reported that Netvibes founder Tariq Krim is stepping down as CEO to work on a “new project”. “My role [...]

By: Bernardo Rodriguez

Bernardo Rodriguez — Thu, 29 May 2008 13:35:40 +0000

Good luck Tariq. You have built a great product.

By: alexis bonte

alexis bonte — Thu, 29 May 2008 11:08:49 +0000

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.

By: John

John — Thu, 29 May 2008 11:07:03 +0000

what #29 said… very true. it’s like 1999/2000 all over again.

By: Moe Glitz

Moe Glitz — Thu, 29 May 2008 09:56:24 +0000

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

By: Fabio De Bernardi

Fabio De Bernardi — Thu, 29 May 2008 08:58:29 +0000

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!

By: Stupid VCs

Stupid VCs — Thu, 29 May 2008 07:47:49 +0000

VCs removed the heart and soul out of Netvibes

Good luck Tariq! Come to California.

By: TechCrunch UK » Blog Archive » Netvibes CEO leaves for new project

TechCrunch UK » Blog Archive » Netvibes CEO leaves for new project — Thu, 29 May 2008 07:45:22 +0000

[...] Krim, founder and CEO of Paris-based Netvibes, is stepping down work on a “new project.” He remains on the board of the company and as a non-executive [...]

By: Martin Varsavsky

Martin Varsavsky — Thu, 29 May 2008 07:44:35 +0000

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.

By: Francois

Francois — Thu, 29 May 2008 07:34:44 +0000

I wish a good luck to Tariq and hope that his new project will be as exciting as netvibes. Tariq rocks!

By: Oliver's Stuff » The founder of Netvibes is moving on. Tariq Krim is stepping down as...

Thu, 29 May 2008 07:18:29 +0000

[...] strategic adviser. Current Netvibes COO Freddy Mini will take over the helm as CEO. — Netvibes CEO Steps Down; Widget Platform Will Open Up May 29th, 2008 / 0 Comments / Tags: netvibes, krim, vc / ‡ / [...]

By: pit

pit — Thu, 29 May 2008 07:06:03 +0000

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!

By: Ouriel Ohayon

Ouriel Ohayon — Thu, 29 May 2008 07:01:34 +0000

Good luck tariq. I am sure you ll move on to something great. Congrats to freddy too

By: Marc’s Voice » Blog Archive » Blogging from Norman, Oklahoma

Marc’s Voice » Blog Archive » Blogging from Norman, Oklahoma — Thu, 29 May 2008 04:51:46 +0000

[...] Congrats to Tariq to moving on [...]

By: Widget123.com

Widget123.com — Thu, 29 May 2008 03:48:26 +0000

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.

By: Geoff Radek

Geoff Radek — Thu, 29 May 2008 03:10:59 +0000

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

By: Andy Swett

Andy Swett — Thu, 29 May 2008 02:20:37 +0000

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….

By: ritual

ritual — Thu, 29 May 2008 02:15:04 +0000

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.

By: James Hung

James Hung — Thu, 29 May 2008 02:08:50 +0000

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….