Wix Inc. has launched a product that enables any user, even the technologically challenged, to establish a slick and professional website based on flash technology. Most importantly, the product is free.
Wix was founded by brothers Avishai and Nadav Avrahami and Giora Kaplan. Avishai Avrahami says, "The idea began when we saw that there was no product that enables users to build a quality content website in a visual way and with high functionality. You use Word to write a document and Excel to create a spreadsheet. Nowhere else can non-professionals build a successful website."
Wix created a free Internet platform, which, with a few clicks in a few minutes, uses drag and drop technology to create a website. In contrast, hiring professionals to create a website can cost thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars.
Avishai Avrahami does not think that Wix will replace the professional web designers. "We won't replace them, but we'll greatly facilitate their work, because they too will save a lot of time and money," he says.
Another major problem is that search engines do not identify flash-based websites. Wix says that sites built with its technology will be exposed in searches. The company will offer its web-creation service for free. Commercial customers who want additional services, such as widgets, will pay for them. The company assumes that commercial customers will want these services to boost traffic on their sites.
Wix has raised $5 million to date: $1 million from private investors, including Exalink founder Eilon Tirosh; and $4 million from Bessemer Venture Partners and Capital Partners. Avishai says that the company will become profitable in 2009.
Avishai says, "There is no website that offers users as many services as we do, although obviously there is competition in some market segments. For example, there are companies that enable users to build websites, such as Monster Template and Freewebs, and there are competitors in the widgets sector."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on July 27, 2008
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