

Mibbit:  One year old, and profitable - abstractbill
http://blog.mibbit.com/?p=184

======
axod
Thanks all, it's been a fun time so far, lots and lots to do to take Mibbit
mainstream, but it's really nice to know I don't have to shell out more money
for bandwidth.

The bandwidth usage before I did work on optimization was around 3TB transfer
a month, which can cost.

BTW Thanks everyone on HN, especially those who contributed to my first post
about Mibbit. It was harsh, and afterwards I almost gave up on the idea, but
sometimes you need that kick.

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=83660>

It's actually quite nice being a lone founder... nothing that makes you more
determined to succeed than being the underdog.

The other interesting stat I forgot to mention, is that Mibbit has about 3-4
times as many users online as Meebo Rooms at any point. I'm quite pleased
about that, lots of room for growth though.

~~~
petercooper
Good luck! I was in your position a couple of years ago. It eventually wore me
down a bit being a lone shark, but there is definitely a high period :)

BTW, bandwidth shouldn't be expensive ($100 a terabyte is reasonable in the
continental US) - it should be your time that's the biggest draw.

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wesley
So right now, the only revenue comes from adsense, right?

Judging by his stats, the website is still very small, hopefully for him, it
will continue to grow. Congrats!

~~~
webwright
I'm curious here, too. I didn't dig in too deeply, but I see exactly 1 ad unit
at the top of the home page, no premium features for sale, etc.

I'd be interested in stats on ad units and CTR (which I've always heard is
really low on communication apps).

edit: Would also be interested in definition of profitability... Covering
hardware/software costs? Covering costs PLUS able to eat ramen? Covering costs
plus paying yourself a market salary?

~~~
axod
Most of the advertising comes from contextual advertising once in the chat.
Also with the widget that other websites use.

The advertising revenue isn't massive yet, ($4 figures/month), but it's
something to build on.

There's also obviously people willing to pay for chat/communication -
campfire, liveperson type services.

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fallentimes
This is awesome - congrats axod. More companies/startups should take pride in
profitability [and tell HN about it dammit! :) ].

Enjoy the reverse burn rate & positive cash flow in 2009.

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pclark
my favourite posts are when HN startups post back saying how fantastically
they're doing - well done, its a real achievement, ESPECIALLY in this climate.

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guruz
axod: Congrats! :)

the rest: why not use mibbit or any other IRC client for #startups on
freenode?

~~~
DTrejo
Always have, the only easy web IRC client I could find :)

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shutter
Congrats. I've enjoyed hearing about your progress over the past year.

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tumult
very cool, i love mibbit :) we just set up an exception on our IRC server so
that it doesn't trigger the max clients limit.

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gsmaverick
Very nice, profitable boot strapped startup.

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abstractbill
Congrats axod! Can't wait to see where you're going to take mibbit in 2009.

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sabat
So the money is from advertising? May be needless to say but it isn't clear.

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zack
Wow, kick ass. Now I don't need to worry about downloading an IRC client when
I'm programming in the library and need to troubleshoot. Kick ass.

~~~
unrealwh
well if you are in emacs you could just start up erc...

------
unrealwh
is this a web frontend to bitlbee? looks very similar in functionlity.

