Wix.com Ltd. is a Israeli cloud-based web development platform that was first developed and popularized by the Israeli company also called Wix. It allows users to create HTML5 web sites and mobile sites through the use of online drag and drop tools. Social plug-ins, e-commerce, online marketing, contact forms, e-mail marketing, and community forums can be accessed through their web sites using a variety of Wix-developed and third-party applications. Wix is built on a freemium business model, earning its revenue through premium upgrades. Wix ads, add e-commerce capabilities, or buy extra data storage and bandwidth. Along with its other offices in Israel, Wix also has locations in Ukraine, Brazil, Lithuania,
Wix was founded in 2006 by Israeli developers Avishai Abrahami, Nadav Abrahami and Giora Kaplan. The company, headquartered in Tel Aviv, with offices in Be’er-Sheva, New York City, San Francisco, Dnipro, Kiev, and Vilnius, is backed by investors Insight Venture Partners, Mangrove Capital Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, and Benchmark Capital . The company entered an open beta phase in 2007 using a platform based on Adobe Flash. By April 2010 Wix had 3.5 million users and $ 10 million in Series C funding provided by Benchmark Capital and other investors Bessemer Venture Partners and Mangrove Capital Partners. In March 2011, Wix had 8.5 million users and raised $ 40 million in Series D funding, bringing its total funding to $ 61 million. In April 2014, Wix announced its acquisition of Appixia, an Israeli startup for creating native mobile commerce (mCommerce) apps. In October 2014, Wix announced its acquisition of OpenRest, a developer of online ordering systems for restaurants. On February 23rd, 2017, Wix.com was acquired by DeviantArt for $ 36 million.
In March 2012, Wix launched a new HTML5 site builder, replacing the Adobe Flash technology. Existing sites built in Flash continued to be supported, but all new customers were directed to the new HTML5 platform. By August 2013, the Wix platform had more than 34 million registered users. By 2014, the company reported 50 million users.
On November 5, 2013, Wix had an initial public offering on NASDAQ, raising about $ 127 million for the company and some share holders.
Wix provides customizable web site templates and a drag and drop HTML5 web site builder that includes apps, graphics, image galleries, fonts, and other options. Users can also opt to create their web sites from scratch. In October 2013 Wix introduced a mobile editor to allow users to adjust their sites for mobile viewing.
In October 2012, Wix launched an app market for users to sell applications built with the company’s automated web development technology. Wix’s software development kit lets app developers create and offer web apps to the millions of Wix users around the globe. Wix App Market offers both free and subscription-based applications, with a revenue split of 70 percent for the developer and 30 percent for Wix. The web site offers third-party applications to their own web sites, such as photo feeds, blogging, music playlists, online community, email marketing, and file management. Various apps are available from Google, Instagram, LiveChat, Shopify, and Ecwid. On May 15, 2014, Wix announced “WixHive API”, which allows any user to access their web site (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx … http://www.microsoft.com/us/index.php) By sharing data, this gives more information about their visitor behavior and can help their businesses.
In August 2014, Wix launched Wix Hotels, a booking system, Wix websites. This was followed in 2015 by Wix Music, a platform for independent musicians to market and sell their music. and Wix Restaurants in 2016.
In October 2016, there was a controversy over Wix’s use of WordPress GPL-licensed code. In response, Avishai Abrahami, Wix’s CEO, published an answer explaining which open source code was used. However, it has been noted that GPL license, which requires any code built on the GPL license, is licensed under the same license.
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