Raj AnandDigital Business Innovators

Ning V/S Kwiqq [kwiqq]

Posted on | March 14, 2007 | View Comments

Ning.com V/S Kwiqq LogoNot

I’ve been questioned about this by friends and colleagues. So I thought I’d organise my thoughts in a blogpost. Firstly there is no Ning versus kwiqq. We are two companies with totally different business models and customer bases.

In my mind Ning solves the basic problem of moving a real world community or interest group into cyberspace cheaply,easily and flexibly. An individual or group can build a site, grow it and even make money from advertising. While in Kwiqq we serve organisations that want to turn a large user base into an online community.
The idea behind Kwiqq?
Simply that organisations such as corporations, charities, sports clubs, churchs etc. needed help to navigate the ‘wild west’ the of emerging social web and that it was a massive market. We built our software to fill this niche. And also add features depending on need. For instance a present client in the travel industry needs a voting system to fit a particular scenario so we built it in. We take care of all the problems in regards to hosting, support and moderation at Kwiqq Labs or via our local partners.
That Kwiqq can help repersonalise large organisations for their members really excites us.

What’s so special about kwiqq?
Apart from the fact that I made it? :) When we built the software I aimed to maximise flexibility and creative potential while adhering to the KISS principle (Keep It Simple Stupid) and be browser neutral.

As everything is CSS designers can totally change the look.
What annoyed me about myspace was that single long page that took forever to load. Kwiqq lets our users add as many pages to their profile as they like and each page can have multiple tools in various layouts. We can predefine optional templates and provide skins. User generated skinning is an upcoming feature.

This is the Page Layout Tool.
Kwiqq software layout
Dont make me think

We have done, and will regularly do, usability tests. An amazingly insightful process! (Thanks Steve Krug). We are also working on the code for speed optimisation.

Finally; we have b2b product. We meet and work with our clients face to face to ensure that they, the users and us are in a win-win-win situation.

We haven’t raised VC money simply because we don’t need it yet. An Angel Investor and a bank loan have got us up and running. Ning has spent $9 million over 1.5 years and has some high profile people on board such as Marc Andreessen, co-founder of Netscape. We are experimenting with Ning, so should everyone, it’s free!
To summarise both Ning and Kwiqq facilitate online social networking. But through very different business models. We are complementary not competitive. So next time I’m asked at a networking event: “have you heard about Ning?” I’ll refer them to this blog :)

Check out the Kwiqq Team and our case study page.

Category: Uncategorized

Comments

  • http://www.inuda.com Jonathan Markwell

    Good to hear some more of your thoughts on this. I know I’ve been one of the people asking the question ;) It’s clear to me that Kwiqq and Ning do have different business models at the moment…

    My response is this:

    What happens to Kwiqq’s growth in 2 to 3 years? By then it could be the norm for most consumers to have accounts with Ning or one of Ning’s direct competitors. These are businesses that seem to be primarily focused on user growth. If that happens and one of these services becomes the defacto standard for social networking wouldn’t your clients be better off using their platform? Particularly if Ning et al are practically free to use.

    You mention that you add value by being able to work with clients face to face and that you can provide bespoke solutions. That sounds like a classic web / IT consultancy model to me with a social networking specialism. Is that what you’re aiming for? If so how will you maintain a competitive advantage as social networking tools become the norm in off the shelf and open source content management systems being used by other web and IT consultancies?

    One possible future I see is that someone like Ning or FaceBook becomes _the_ social networking platform… just like ebay is _the_ online market place. As that happens, just as with ebay sellers, a whole new industry of social networking consultants will form. They will be able to provide clients with face to face consultations and develop bespoke social networks for specific communities – all built on top of the defacto social network.

    There are other possible futures I see for social networking. What I find difficult to understand is how Kwiqq might fit into any of them in the long term.

  • http://www.kwiqq.com Raj Anand

    Firstly thanks for the comments Jon. Its always nice to hear from you and hear your thoughts.

    Q. What happens to Kwiqq’s growth in 2 to 3 years? If that happens and one of these services becomes the defacto standard for social networking wouldn’t your clients be better off using their platform?
    A. We have been continuously working on our strategy with companies we work with. I can see where you are coming from.

    * I see myspace as a massive network, similarly there is facebook, faceparty etc. Whats really important here (and this from speaking to our current clients) is they like their data to be protected. Why would a corporate provide all their existing clients to these social networks, generate revenue/client base for these social networks and get little or limited PR from it.
    * Recently we had a similar case with one of our clients. They were working with a social network and they realised the potential of having their own social network using Kwiqq.

    Q. If so how will you maintain a competitive advantage as social networking tools become the norm in off the shelf and open source content management systems being used by other web and IT consultancies?

    A. Not sure of that.

    * We are not only producing software but creative ideas (or as we call it a hook) to kick start and continuously get people coming back to the website.

    * We are specialist providing social networking solution and thats the only thing we do !

    Q. Whats the future for Kwiqq?
    A. No one can predict the future, but we are certainly taking steps to ensure that we provide better service for our customers and users.

    * In order to further improve the experience. We have a system called ‘Universal Kwiqq Login’. Now if you are registered on any of the kwiqq websites you wont have to register again to use any other kwiqq built sites.
    * Continuous user testing and feedback is the way we would like to go about it.

    Jon in his email also mentioned: http://www.ning.com/about/businesses.html

    Again this is not aimed at corporates. Developing successful communities as you might know requires fair amount of capital, effort and contacts. In my mind there are several factors which govern sizeable communities: existing user base, marketing and a hook. So yes you can get yourself a branded website but does that imply it could be a successful community?

  • http://www.bestengagingcommunities.com Mukund Mohan

    Thanks for the blog visit. I will check out Kwiqq in a bit to compare it to Ning.
    Mukund

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