In light of Wix's (DIY website creator for amateurs) recent file for IPO at a company valuation of $700M, Webydo's CEO Shmulik Grizim has kindly shared the company's own market analysis with us.
With a staggering 75 million websites in existance and an astounding 16 million added each month, the question to ask is 'who is driving this technological force?'
This analysis is the first such observation of data and research surrounding this topic, highliting the role of amateurs VS professionals within this specific industry. Pointing to a rapidly evolving market where DIY is taking a clear lead, the analisis is accompanied by illuminating infographics produced in collaboration with Visual.ly reflects the democratising nature of new technology, where revolutionary tools such as Webydo are placing powerful creative tools in designers' hands.
So would future website creation be led by non-professional amateurs and hobbyists using DIY solutions? If so, what role would professional designers play in this evolving market?
I ask Webydo's CEO Shmulik Grizim to expand on the significance of this analysis and 'what the numbers mean'.
'The numbers' explains Grizim, 'show clearly that the majority of business websites are currently created by professionals using professional tools. Until recently the market offered only B2C DIY solutions for amateurs, and B2B solutions for developers. Now, emerged a third segment disrupting the web design market with a B2B solution for designers lead by Webydo. Webydo's pro-designers movement enables designers to create and manage multiple pixel-perfect websites for their clients independently, without writing code or hiring developers' Webydo is of the belief that these new solutions for designers will transform the way websites are created.
'Technology is a powerful vehicle' adds Grizim, 'but we have to ask ourselves, who is driving it? We believe designers should grab the driver seat. Developers have extremely powerful open-source communities such as WordPress, now it is time for the designers' community to unite in a similar way and lead the future of website creation. Designers are the innovative force behind the great achievements of this era. Empowered with total creative freedom and independence designers will shape a better web for us all."
'More than 70% of websites' states Webydo's press release, 'are created in a professional process by developers using pro-developers platforms. These B2B solutions offer tools for building advanced websites including custom design and CMS (Content Management Systems), such as WordPress, Joomla and Drupal. However, in order to create functioning websites developers need to manually convert static graphic design into code. This manual programming is expensive (up to 70% of the budget) and time-consuming. Designers are marginalized in this process; they cannot experience their designs in real time and lack direct communication with their clients', and this is where Webydo comes in.