Two days ago, "Silicon Valley Spy" published an article "Silicon Valley in 2008", which reviewed the development of some representative technology companies during the period when Web 2.0 came to an end ten years ago. This change makes Internet products with user-oriented and core content become a new market trend, which develops new business opportunities and brings new social problems.
Ten years later, technology and Internet-derived enterprises are more abundant, and the services provided are more diversified and subdivided. Technology and entrepreneurship are no longer unfamiliar to many people, and concepts such as "blockchain", "Internet of Things" and "big data" have entered thousands of households.
20 18 the global situation is complex and changeable, and the science and technology industry has also been greatly affected. Under such circumstances, there are still 8 unicorn companies successfully listed. Let's have a look. What are these companies doing? What are their characteristics?
(Source: Eventbrite)
Eventbrite was founded by Hartz and his wife in San Francisco in 2006. Is a website focusing on event management and ticket sales, and its profit mainly comes from the transaction costs generated by paid activities on the platform. Eventbrite was listed on September 20, 20 18. Its listing was not accidental, but largely due to the expectations of investors and the market.
There are two kinds of activities on Eventbrite: free and paid. Although there is no high technology, the user experience of the website is very good and the operation is simple and convenient. Moreover, whether enterprises, businesses or institutions can launch activities, sell tickets, book and count people on Eventbrite, which helps them to better solve a series of arrangements for follow-up activities.
In addition, Eventbrite products accurately meet the young consumer groups in the global mid-market and do not participate in high-end and low-end market competition.
At the same time, Eventbrite's products are highly internationalized, and the trend of global expansion is also obvious. 20 18 In April, Eventbrite acquired Ticketea, a Spanish ticketing service company, and Picatic, a Canadian ticketing website, in August, with the aim of merging third parties. However, when the spy observed the company's recent financial statements, he found that Evenbrite had been losing money for two years, and the expansion mode of burning money to seize the market would continue for some time.
Ha, I didn't expect our old friend DropBox, the "network disk", to be listed only last year!
In 2007, Dropbox was founded by students of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), hatched by the well-known incubator Y Combinator, and its headquarters is also in San Francisco. Dropbox's main business is file hosting services, including cloud storage, file synchronization, personal cloud and client software; Pay for profit through commercial and individual users.
DropBox basically has all the conditions for a company's success: early market entry, outstanding creative talents, high-quality core technology, completely free for ordinary users, steady pace of business and enterprise expansion, and is loved by the industry and consumers. The spy and many classmates around him are its loyal users. Today, DropBox has more than 500 million users in 180 regions around the world. In 20 16, Dropbox was named the best startup company of the year by TechCrunch.
(Source: DropBox)
Although the profit of Dropbox has been unstable in the last two years, and there have been continuous losses recently, its quarterly financial report in March of 20 16 shows that it has made a high profit of more than 1 1 billion dollars.
SurveyMonkey (hereinafter referred to as "SVMK") is no stranger to North American students. In addition to time planning questionnaires like DuDu Pool, SVMK's information questionnaire is also very popular. In 20 15, it was selected into the list of Forbes unicorn startups, and went public in September 20 18. In addition to providing free and paid services for individual users, SVMK also provides marketing solutions for data analysis and brand management for enterprises to achieve profitability.
Surprisingly, the product SurveyMonkey appeared as early as 1999. It was not until Dave Goldberg became the CEO of SVMK in 2009 that the company was able to expand rapidly (unfortunately, Goldberg died on 20 15). By the way, his wife is the number two boss of Facebook. Goldberg saw the future value of "data" very early, and with his excellent management and attitude towards people, SVMK has a small, precise and fast-moving team. Until today, the SVMK team is still very small, with only more than 700 people in the world, but it is extremely efficient.
Today, SVMK's business is highly global, with products in 190 countries and regions. SVMK 20 17 was profitable, but it has been losing money last year. Since SVMK's business is related to data receipt collection, it also has stable cooperation with major customers. Regarding its future, the spy said: I am optimistic about you!
(Source: Survey Monkey)
Founded in 2007, Zscaler is an information security company, which was listed on NASDAQ on March 20 18. It mainly provides automatic threat forensics and dynamic malware protection to resist advanced network threats, such as advanced persistent threats and spear phishing.
In detail, on the one hand, Zscaler is similar to many traditional companies that provide security protection services, mainly providing Internet security, network security, firewall, sandbox, SSL check and anti-virus vulnerability management services; On the other hand, Zscaler's business field is also in line with emerging sub-fields, involving mobile Internet of Things and data monitoring.
Compared with other start-ups, Zscaler is a clear stream in the private technology company "unicorn". The founder of this company actively raised funds by himself, realizing "cash flow neutrality", which represents the stability of income and profit. Today, it is very common for start-ups to extend their lives by a round of financing and blood transfusion, not to mention start-ups, which many traditional industries, such as energy companies and real estate companies, cannot do.
(Source: Zscaler)
The spy believes that the company's business is also of great reference value to the Internet industry in China. After all, the security risks and user privacy leakage in the field of Internet of Things have become one of the main reasons that affect the start-up development.
As its name implies, DocuSign (an electronic signature service) is a technology company that provides electronic signature technology and digital transaction management services. DocuSign (an electronic signature service) was established in 2003 and listed on Nasdaq Stock Exchange last April. Now, DocuSign (an electronic signature service) has hundreds of millions of users, and there are supporting services for individuals, businesses and enterprises.
It is safe and easy to use, and can meet the individual needs of users ... These characteristics make DocuSign (an electronic signature service) quickly occupy the corporate customer market. 20 12 American media Business Insider reported that about 90% of Fortune 500 companies have signed up to use DocuSign (an electronic signature service). The spy saw in the company's financial announcement that DocuSign (an electronic signature service) has been losing money for two years, but it turned a profit at the end of 20 18 and may make a profit in the new year.
(Source: DocuSign (an electronic signature service) introduced by official website)
Anaplan 2006, also from San Francisco, was established, and its main product is enterprise performance management software. The company has more than 20 offices, 175 partners and more than 900 customers around the world. The application directions of Anaplan products include finance, sales, supply chain, marketing, human resources and operation. 20 18 10 12, Ampland was listed on the new york Stock Exchange.
Anaplan's business mainly faces commercial customers. Through the patented Hyperblock multi-tenant data architecture SaaS platform, the product can realize dynamic collaboration and intelligent planning; Through connecting people, data management, project planning and real-time planning decision-making, the business efficiency is finally improved. Another big advantage of Anaplan is that its services are completely based on "cloud" and support "zero deployment". Users can log on to the platform Anaplan on smart devices and connect to the service.
In the first half of 20 18, the competition in the domestic enterprise cloud service product market was fierce, but the Saas performance management software was not optimistic. According to Beisen's survey, in China, more than half of China executives and human resources departments think this investment is not worthwhile, and nearly half of employees think it is unnecessary.
It seems that in the China market, perhaps compared with the technology itself, how to make people accept enterprise management products is a bigger challenge.
Bloom energy company was founded in 200 1 and moved to the national aeronautics and space administration ARC in silicon valley in 2002. After the development of 17 years, this new energy star was listed on July 25th, 20 18. The company mainly regenerates solid oxide fuel cells, uses environmentally friendly natural gas and bioenergy, and converts them into electricity.
Many of its partners are large enterprises in the energy field, Fortune 500 companies in various fields, and even some government agencies in North America. In 20 14, Bloom Energy established the largest fuel cell deployment project in American history, including 75 commercial facilities in California, Connecticut, New Jersey and New York. Do you think the founder must be an American?
You are wrong! There is an inspirational story of "American Dream" behind Bloom Energy.
Source: Bloom Engergy
Its founder, K.R. sridhar, was born in India, moved to the United States in 1982, and obtained a doctorate in nuclear engineering from the University of Illinois. Sridhar is currently the director of the Space Technology Laboratory of the University of Arizona and a professor of aerospace mechanical engineering.
(Source: CNBC.com)
After participating in this work, sridhar participated in a project of NASA called Mars producing oxygen to provide environmentally friendly hydrogen for automobile batteries. Unfortunately, in 200 1 year, with the landing failure of the Mars -200 1 surveyor lander, this research project was cancelled. However, sridhar's journey of transforming Mars battery technology into commercial applications has achieved different results.
Finally, the only foreign company among the eight listed unicorns is NIO of China, which is internationally known as "Tesla of China". Since everyone is familiar with this company, the spy will not be introduced separately here.
(Source: Axios)
Unfortunately, after the listing last year, a traffic accident in NIO in June and February of 5438 once again triggered consumers' concerns about driverless and electric vehicles. In the article "CES Watch", we pointed out that "China Science and Technology" and "Driverless Driving" laid the keynote for the development of science and technology in 20 19 years. As for the future development of NIO, let's wait and see.
Are you surprised after reading the introduction of these eight companies?
The spy talked about his feelings. Compared with Unicorn, which was listed before 10, these companies have basically maintained a safe and efficient core business. In addition to energy start-ups and cars, they have their own advantages in cloud services. Basically, you can make a joke or say that they are not cool or dazzling, and listing is "should".
After the Wall Street financial crisis ten years ago, the unicorn with "security and stability" as its core developed. Ten years later, the data age came. What opportunities and future will the past 8 120 leave us?
Haven't seen enough? Welcome to the pre-spy series:
Come and tell the spy what you think!