Ning

Ning was a Palo Alto startup with a simple pitch: anyone should be able to create a social network of their own. A band, a school club, a political campaign or a hobby group could set up a site with member profiles, forums, photos and video without writing code. In the years when Facebook and MySpace dominated, Ning offered the do-it-yourself alternative.

Its co-founders were among the best known people in Silicon Valley. Marc Andreessen had co-founded Netscape. Gina Bianchini ran the company. Ning grew fast, raised large sums, then hit a wall in 2010. It was sold in 2011 and still operates under later owners.

What Ning does

Ning is a hosted platform for building online communities. A customer picks a design and the features it wants, such as member pages, discussion forums, chat, events, blogs, polls and analytics. Members join that community rather than a single global network. Communities can also use their own web address.

The networks run on Ning's platform are programmed in PHP. The platform itself is built in Java. Since October 2010, network owners have been able to manage their sites from an iPhone app. In February 2018 Ning added tools that let creators charge members for access.

Founding in Palo Alto

Development started in October 2004. The platform went public in October 2005. Bianchini, a former banker, was chief executive. Andreessen served as chairman and was the company's primary financier in the early years. A 2007 Associated Press story called Ning a Palo Alto based startup and noted Andreessen was also chairman of Opsware at the time.

We could not confirm from primary sources which building Ning used, so we do not list an address. Our page on University Avenue's tech history covers the downtown blocks where many such firms started.

The first version was different from what Ning became. At launch it was a free-form platform for building and hosting open-source social applications. Users could copy any Ning application, change its PHP code and run it as their own. In late September 2006 Ning narrowed its focus to group, photo and video sites. Those templates later merged into a single customizable product for building your own social network.

Growth and funding

Ning started with money from Bianchini, Andreessen and angel investors. In July 2007 it raised $44 million in venture capital, led by Legg Mason. It announced another $75 million across 2008 and 2009. VentureBeat later reported that the company's peak valuation was about $750 million.

Usage grew alongside the money. In April 2010 Ning reported 43 million registered users and more than two million networks created on the platform.

The 2010 turn

In March 2010 Bianchini left the chief executive role. Jason Rosenthal took over. About a month later, on April 15, 2010, he announced that Ning would end its free service. Network owners had to move to a paid plan or move their content off Ning.

The same announcement cut the staff from 167 employees to 98, according to Associated Press coverage datelined Palo Alto.

The paid model shrank Ning's footprint but kept it alive. By June 2011 there were more than 90,000 social websites running on the platform.

The sale and later owners

In September 2011 Glam Media, an online media company, agreed to buy Ning. VentureBeat first reported the price as undisclosed, then updated its story to say the deal was worth $150 million, citing Bloomberg. At the time Ning had about 100,000 networks, about 60 million unique visitors a month and 100 million registered profiles. Rosenthal joined Glam to run Ning. Glam later renamed itself Mode Media.

Ning's own website says the business was later acquired by PSCP Holdings Limited and now operates under the name NING Interactive, Inc. The same page says Ning was started in California in 2004.

Reading the old numbers

Ning's size is easy to misread because the company and the press used different measures at different times. Three figures from 2010 and 2011 show the problem.

• Networks created. In April 2010 Ning said more than two million networks had been created on the platform. That counts every network anyone ever started, including ones that later went quiet.
• Networks running. By June 2011, after the free service ended, more than 90,000 social websites were running on Ning. Those were active, mostly paying networks.
• People. Ning reported 43 million registered users in April 2010. When Glam bought it in September 2011, the figures quoted were about 60 million unique visitors a month and 100 million registered profiles.

So the drop from two million to under 100,000 does not mean 95 percent of the business vanished. Much of the gap reflects the switch from counting every free experiment to counting active, mostly paying communities. Read old articles with that in mind.

Ning timeline

What the founders did next

Marc Andreessen co-founded the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz with Ben Horowitz in 2009. It became one of the most influential firms on Sand Hill Road and an early investor in many companies with Palo Alto ties. Our Andreessen Horowitz profile covers the firm.

Gina Bianchini stayed in the community software business. She went on to co-found Mighty Networks, another platform for building online communities.

Ning's place in Palo Alto history

Ning belongs to the mid 2000s wave of social software that made Palo Alto the center of the social web for a few years. Facebook was the giant of that wave and spent its own Palo Alto years downtown from 2004 to 2011. Our Facebook profile tells that story. Ning tried a different model, many small networks instead of one big one.

The idea of letting groups run their own communities outlived Ning's peak. Plenty of later community platforms take a similar approach. For the longer arc of local technology, see our Silicon Valley history.

Visiting notes

For other companies founded in or based in the city, see our Palo Alto companies hub.

Frequently asked questions