Today we have around 1M registered users. That was a strengthening mechanism and a battle we simply couldn’t fight, so our focus today is as it started: Awesome web galleries for any web site.
We were 10 people at our highest and it was a huge thing for me, but after a few years, we realized that people tend to gather where others go.
#Jalbum free version software#
Then, a venture capitalist had contacted me with a vision to make a social network that would be similar to Facebook but more image centered, and they wanted to use my software as the basis, so I let them invest in my company. jAlbum was picked up by a few magazines and I was selected as one of the hottest entrepreneurs of the year. At that time my site had a whopping 13.8M inbound links from around the world. When I started looking to expand, I told my story to Swedish media. I spent another three years working for that company until I realized that my “Gallery made by jAlbum” signature was getting an enormous amount of inbound links, so I used that power to sell ads, quit my job and worked on it by myself for a whole year. As it turned out, a Japanese website had published my software and generated tons of downloads as a result, so I had to move my software to the cloud. Eventually, the tech admin came up to me and said it was draining their network. I offered this free software online and people around the world began contributing to it, in the spirit of open source.Īt the time, I was working for another company in the gaming industry and as a bonus, I was allowed to run my software through their network. Not being a graphic designerת I then made the clever move to enable graphic designers to contribute with that part via plugin modules we call “skins”. The first version was functional but lacking in terms of graphic design. It was sneaky marketing! I felt annoyed and decided to build an easier to use tool that would also be free of charge. Then, to actually make real use of these software titles, you had to pay for them.
#Jalbum free version code#
I wanted people to be able to print their own images, so I was thinking, why don’t I upload them to my website so everyone can download whatever they need.Įven though I’m a developer, I wasn’t thinking of writing the code myself, so I downloaded a bunch of “free” software but none of them were flexible enough to adjust things to my liking.
I took lots of pictures and promised my friends I will burn a CD and mail it to them. I bought my first digital camera and went on a ski trip with 12 friends. This was in an era where you could see digital cameras but no social media. JAlbum started with my own personal need, back in 2002, while I was working for another IT company. Please describe the story behind jAlbum and it’s evolution so far. In this interview, jAlbum founder David Ekholm from Sweden reveals the idea behind this originally-free software, how they almost went bankrupt, and how the company finally managed to pull it together, with the help of their loyal users. JAlbum is a Powerful web album software that allows you to create professional-looking online photo albums for any web site and customize them to the finest detail.
0 kommentar(er)
