Human memory – a piece unreliable. Perhaps that is why the creators of the service Evernote call their brainchild «expander memory». Create an online tool enabling you to not just store information, but above all to structure it in a user-friendly form. Although Evernote – an American company, the roots of it still Russia.
- How many now have Evernote users?
- A few days ago we crossed over 1,5 million.
- And how many of them from Russia?
- Tens of thousands.
- At first glance, a somewhat strange situation: the Evernote Russian roots, and Koreans do not constitute the majority user base. What is the reason, in your opinion?
– Well, actually, no bias there. Until we have the most users in the United States, Britain, Germany and, interestingly, in Japan. After all, in Russia we launched our service not so long ago and so far quite pleased with the results. But the promotion of the service takes time. Also still need to solve several problems. First – we have no client for Symbian. Mobile component for our service is very important. A client application for Nokia, are very popular in Russia, we do not. We expect rapid growth – as soon make a version for this platform.
- In any case, Russia’s version of the service was launched only a year after the British. In the face some discrimination compatriots. Or is it not so?
– Name can be anything you like. But do not forget: though the roots for us and it is true Russia, the company is still – American. Headquarters and most of the teams are in California, and our main market – is North America. However, despite this, we launched a Russian version of the earlier German and Japanese. And this despite the fact that in terms of «normal» American company, the Japanese market is much more interesting. Americans tend to go first to Japan, Germany and China, and only then to Russia.
- How many people now working in the company?
– Approximately 30, 20 or so in California, 7 people here.
- And most of them from Russia?
- No, somewhere around half. In the Moscow office, of course, everything. And in Mountain View – a few people.
- If a company hires someone, then to candidates from any country will be given preference – from the U.S. or Russia?
- All, of course, depends on the nature of the vacancy. If it relates to marketing in the U.S., we hire an American. If this is a developer, then other things being equal, we try to recruit in Russia. It’s not that the experts here cheaper. Yes, this is true, but not the main thing. It is important that Russia is still a lot of talented programmers.
- How much time there Russian office and what is its main task?
In fact, the Russian office was a long time. After all, here we are not only engaged in promoting the service, but also the development of technology. A business function came when it launched a Russian version of Evernote – about a year ago. In Russia are developing recognition algorithms and the product itself. For example mobile clients. And, of course, the local office is responsible for promoting the service on the local market.
- Since Evernote still an American company, you may be used to attend in the United States. Feels there be a crisis in the IT industry? And does it look like what is happening in Russia?
– Yes, indeed, I think I spend half their time there. Of course, there is a crisis there. There is a slight decrease in activity of high-tech companies. Strongly dipped venture capital market, there is less startups. But not all that bad. The crisis started just in the U.S., and seems out of it America will be the first.
- Many say that crisis, there are some positive moments. Market wages, for example, was «overheated», but now high-level specialists are available … Have you noticed?
- Yes, certainly. But the fact that wages have fallen – it is not important. The main thing – the availability of specialists. We have become easier to hire people. After all, during the boom, the main problem was not that people have cost, but the fact that they were very difficult to find. Plus, reduced the number of «foam». Many nonviable Internet startups left the stage, decreased the level of «noise».
- What impact reduction «noise» of investors and their relation to start-ups?
- Well, of course, investor expectations have risen. Despite this we have received investment.
- By the way, about the money. How to earn Evernote?
– Evernote – a service for «memory expansion». An important feature of our solution is that it is available everywhere, not just at a time when you sit at the computer. Therefore, we make great efforts to Evernote has been available on phones. But it’s all basic, free feature. Is there a subscription, which gives additional possibilities. For example, we do not limit the amount of stored information, but there is a limit on the amount of notes, which the user can create a month. For free subscribers – 40 megabytes for the toll – 500 megabytes.
- How much does, say a year?
- $ 45 per year or $ 5 a month. Money small. Our task is to convince people that they need our product.
- And how many people are satisfied?
- Assessing the work of the company, we pay attention to several factors. First, the total number of registered users. Secondly, the number of active users. Thirdly – «conversion rate», ie, that portion of active users who subscribe to paid services.
- How many Russia users Evernote is paid subscribers?
- A little. Less than the average for the project. And it’s not even a lesser capacity to pay the Russians. First, as I said, there is no version for Symbian. And secondly, in Russia we have no convenient means of payment. We support PayPal and Google Checkout, it is quite enough for the United States and Western Europe. But in Russia, and he and other tools – it is still exotic. Once we learn to support other methods of payment, I think the number of paying subscribers in Russia increases.
- For Evernote paid subscription – it is the only source of income?
– No, there is still advertising. But while we are just beginning to explore this direction, place a small banner with a carefully selected advertisements in my web client, as well as in applications for Windows and «Macs». Experiments, groping for a balance between comfort for users and efficiency.
You did not plan any way to integrate advertising and mobile clients for Evernote?
- About the same time we are also thinking, but not yet implemented. This direction is, indeed, many say. There is great scope for innovation.
- When a company is about to start in return?
- I am not yet ready to discuss the financial details. Today we planned unprofitable. - We – venture project and continue to invest. But despite the crisis, we still manage to grow faster than planned. And the number of paid users is growing faster than anticipated, our financial plans.
- One of the features of Evernote – complete lack of advertising the project in the traditional sense.Noticeable only promotion in blogs and forums. How effective such a strategy and whether you stick to it and then?
- Yes, we continue to do so. There is still work with the press. This approach is very effective, can reduce the cost of attracting users. Moreover, it is blogs are best suited to talk about our service. After all, people use Evernote quite differently. Man goes on vacation, doing some sort of analytics – where to go, in which hotel to stay. Then, already in place, photographing her hotel, restaurant, menu. Collect their memories, and – all that remains in Evernote. In general, there is the mass of a completely unpredictable occasions when you need something to remember. People love our service and they are happy to share their experiences with others. We have a lot of «friends» in Twitter, large groups in Facebook, we like to write about bloggers. So word of mouth is very effective.
But this approach would involve only the advanced users, those who are called «gikami». But they are not so much. … And you deliberately limits its audience …
– Well, geeks are not so many in Russia, but much more in the United States. Of course, at some point we will need to use other channels of communication. And we are slowly beginning to do it. ? ???? ?? «????» Besides «geeks» – this is a very gracious audience. Indeed, on the one hand, to reach them easily, but on the other, they are very important when you go to the masses. For example, when someone’s grandmother interested Evernote, she asks her grandson, who knows about computers and the Internet. I would very much like to see when this interest with his grandmother there, the grandson could tell her about us something distinctly.
