Re: Interview of Adrian with www.phparch.com

[LordWolf]

Interview of Adrian with www.phparch.com

Who are the commercial or non-commercial competitors of your product?
As our product covers Forums, Blogs, and a Content Management System, there are a large number of competitors. The most widely used competitor would be Wordpress.

Not to be a smart aleck or anything, but I thought your biggest competitor would have been IPS, since they are closer to the same market that you are in than WordPress. Just a little confused on why you picked to mention WP.

[Brandon_R]

That's exactly what i was thinking when i read it.

I guess he didn't want to mention them, not to give them free publicity or anything :P

[Shamil.]

This is the reason why my employees have in their contracts, a non-disclosure to any press, interview or reference.

[Ryan Ashbrook]

Technically, as far as sites powered by a specific software, he would be correct.

WordPress is (one of) the most widely used software, and combined with Buddy Press (also made by Auttomatic), can be considered competition with vBulletin.

This is the reason why my employees have in their contracts, a non-disclosure to any press, interview or reference.

Remind me to never work for you.

[LordWolf]

Technically, as far as sites powered by a specific software, he would be correct.

Using that argument, he could have claimed that Apache was the biggest competitor.

WordPress is, by it's own definition, a blogging software. vB is a forum software. Thus my question about why it was mentioned instead of a competitor in the same field.

[punchbowl]

for the reflected glory

[Shamil.]

Technically, as far as sites powered by a specific software, he would be correct.

WordPress is (one of) the most widely used software, and combined with Buddy Press (also made by Auttomatic), can be considered competition with vBulletin.



Remind me to never work for you.

That's the only "nasty" clause.

[hornstar6969]

I think we all know why ipb was not mentioned. if I was in their shoes I would also have tried to dodge that question too. Who wants to give free publicity away in an interview to a real competitor.

[MRGTB]

I think WordPress can be seen as a competitor, but in a slightly different way than lets say IPB who's in the same market (forum boards). Because a lot of people are turning away from running communities and deciding to run the likes of WordPress free as a Blog system. So in a round-about-way, I guess WordPress is seen as a competitor. But then you could argue the same with loads of other software platforms that are popular just like it, such as Drupal that comes with it's own forum software.

You could even say the same about Facebook and Twitter, they're all competition in their own way if they take something away from communities being used and sold. And it's not only IPB that effect vBulletin sales. It might even be a case that IPB doesn't effect sales (as much) as people using WordPress does. When you look around the Internet today, there are a hell of a lot of WordPress powered sites out there now!

I'm a prime example of that one I guess, I'm only running a WordPress site right now, yet I could install IPB 3.1 or vBulletin 4 if I wanted. But I've chosen to use WordPress above the two. And even if I did installed either forum software, these days I see my WordPress Blog as being the most important to stay if one has to go.

Here is something interesting too. Type in Google "powered by vBulletin", "powered by IPB", "powered byWordPress" and check the result numbers.

1st place: vBulletin = 191,000,000
2nd place: WordPress = 143,000,000
3rd place: IPB = 13,400,000

As you can see, IPB is way short of the mark.

WordPress has only been around for 7 years too. Unlike vBulletin and IPB. Yet it's blown away IPB already on stat numbers used, and is fast catching-up with vBulletin in those short 7 years. So I do think Adrian has a valid point to mention WordPress.

[Shamil.]

[QUOTE=MRGTB;1986950]snip[QUOTE]

For some odd reason, though, people who go with IPB are more likely to go the branding removal :/

[MRGTB]

Yeah, not only that too. There is an option in IPB 3 to remove the "powered by version" from the footer with the flick of a switch. So that may hide many IPB forums from being picked-up by Google. Not 100% about that one though.

[JamieinNH]

Here is something interesting too. Type in Google "powered by vBulletin", "powered by IPB", "powered byWordPress" and check the result numbers.

1st place: vBulletin = 191,000,000
2nd place: WordPress = 143,000,000
3rd place: IPB = 13,400,000

In the interview, Adrian said this:

How many downloads or installations of the project has happened from the day of the first release?
There are currently over 50,000 active, registered installations of the product running on sites across the internet.

With only 50,000 installs since the day of the first release, this number shows you that the above Google search is no way to match company against company. There is no good way to compare sites, too many variables.

The only thing we do know is what Adrian has told us that there are only 50,000 active, registered installs. With that as a starting point, I can't see how WP would be their biggest competitor. In the forum industry it would be IPB, PHPBB or SMF In the 'communities' industry it would be Facebook or MySpace.


Jamie

[Brandon_R]

Why did they even make an "interviews" subforum if they aren't going to be totally honest in it?

Eveeryone knows IPB is vB's biggest competition anyways so no harm no foul.

[LordWolf]

Here is something interesting too. Type in Google "powered by vBulletin", "powered by IPB", "powered byWordPress" and check the result numbers.

1st place: vBulletin = 191,000,000
2nd place: WordPress = 143,000,000
3rd place: IPB = 13,400,000

As you can see, IPB is way short of the mark.

WordPress has only been around for 7 years too. Unlike vBulletin and IPB. Yet it's blown away IPB already on stat numbers used, and is fast catching-up with vBulletin in those short 7 years. So I do think Adrian has a valid point to mention WordPress.

How many of those results are pages from the same site? How many of those results are actual boards being run -vs- someone just copying the phrase? Also keep in mind that IPB has been around since 2002 (which is 8 years) and was wildly popular as a free product before it went paid. Not trying to push it on anyone, just that a Google search and a "only been around for 7 years" isn't much of an argument for or against anything in this case.

snip

For some odd reason, though, people who go with IPB are more likely to go the branding removal :/

I see nothing wrong with purchasing the copyright removal. I'm sure that Skype and Neowin prefer to have their own look without having a "Powered by IPB" on there and if they were running vB, I have no doubt they would purchase that same removal option.

Yeah, not only that too. There is an option in IPB 3 to remove the "powered by version" from the footer with the flick of a switch. So that may hide many IPB forums from being picked-up by Google. Not 100% about that one though.

That switch only removes the version information, not the entire "powered by" line.

[MRGTB]

I understand it's not that cut and dry on the stats I posted, I was just posting them as an example. I'm very much aware of all the different variables that come into play, like some you pointed out.