WebProNews

Tag: Mark Bartels

  • StumbleUpon No longer Has A CEO, Is Part Of Expa’s Mix.com (Also 5by Is Shutting Down)

    It would appear that StumbeUpon is no longer a company with a CEO. There hasn’t really been a lot of clarity around this in recent months, but that appears to be the state of things.

    Over two years ago, StumbleUpon (under CEO Mark Bartels) made its first acquisition with 5by – a video discovery service that operated much like StumbleUpon itself, but strictly for videos. It was a pretty cool app, particularly once it became Chromecast compatible, and seemed to be a major part of where StumbleUpon was headed.

    On Thursday, an email was sent to 5by users saying that it is shutting down. While I was well aware that StumbleUpon has been going through some changes, I can’t say I saw that coming.

    Digging a bit after receiving that email, I discovered much to my surprise neither Bartels nor 5by CEO Greg Isenberg are even at the company anymore. I’ve seen no reports of either leaving, which seems strange to me particularly in the case of Bartels. We’re talking about the CEO of what is one of the web’s biggest drivers of social media traffic to websites. If he left the company, it seems like we should’ve heard about it.

    As you may know, co-founder Garrett Camp announced in August that he was returning to the company, purchasing the majority stake, and advising management. He wrote:

    Some difficult changes to the product and company will be needed, and these changes will take time. But I strongly believe that systems like StumbleUpon play an important role in helping people discover what matters most to them. I’m excited to work with the team on product once again, getting back-to-basics and improving recommendations, while exploring potential synergies between SU and Expa.

    He noted that he is still focused on being CEO of Expa, his startup studio (which counts Uber among its companies by the way).

    While layoffs were known, there was no mention of the departure of Bartels, Isenberg, or even 5by at all. According to Bartel’s LinkedIn profile, he exited StumbleUpon in September. I’ve also learned that Isenberg has been gone since June.

    So what does that mean for StumbleUpon? Well, Camp actually announced what is going on with StumbleUpon on October 30th. Apparently nobody (at least in the media – myself included) noticed it.

    Expa has begun working on a new discovery platform called Mix.com, which aims to “connect the curious with the creative, delivering personalized recommendations one click at a time.”

    That sounds exactly like StumbleUpon.

    “Mix will provide a modern and elegant way to discover the best content liked by friends and experts, from across the web to your mobile device,” Camp wrote.

    He also said that StumbleUpon is officially part of the Expa family and that the StumbleUpon team will be joining forces with Expa to create Mix.com, “bringing with them everything learned serving 50 billion recommendations to millions of people.”

    According to this announcement, StumbleUpon users will be able to use the site like normal and it will “continue to operate as always” as Expa explores new product ideas for Mix. My guess is that StumbleUpon will go away once Mix is ready for primetime.

    While plenty of websites still get a ton of traffic from StumbleUpon, it’s clear (and made even more so by the lack of coverage around this) that StumbleUpon just doesn’t draw the interest that it once did. This evolution could be just what it needs.

    The reality is that StumbleUpon still operates within in an area in which it isn’t really rivaled. There aren’t really any other services of note that do what StumbleUpon does, which is obviously why Camp is still pursuing this kind of content discovery.

    Image via Mix.com

  • As StumbleUpon Sends More Traffic, CEO Talks Content Submission

    It was only four short years ago that StumbleUpon was the biggest driver of social media traffic to websites. Look at this chart from StatCounter we shared in January, 2011.

    Was StumbleUpon a big traffic driver for your site back then? Have things changed? Let us know in the comments.

    A lot has changed in the social media landscape since then. For one thing, Pinterest didn’t crack the top ten social networking services until December of that year. Now, it’s number two for social media traffic referrals, while Facebook has completely run away with the top spot. These days, StumbleUpon sits at a respectable number four, based on data from Shareaholic (Pinterest is at a comfortable number 2), but out of the eight social networks Shareaholic tracks, only Facebook and StumbleUpon saw growth in referrals in Q4.

    StumbleUpon referrals are back on the rise after previously heading in the opposite direction, and this is likely due to various efforts by the company, including email and social media strategy, a new blogger program, and a change made to the functionality of the submit button for websites. We discussed all of this here.

    But will websites continue to be able to get their content in front of the StumbleUpon audience and reap the traffic benefits? As you may or may not know, StumbleUpon made its first acquisition in 2013 when it bought video discovery platform 5by. It seems that much of the company’s focus has been on this service, which essentially works like a StumbleUpon for video. Last year, 5by gained Chromecast support, opening the service up to all of those who’ve bought Google’s super-cheap streaming device. 5by, which works great as a discovery service, does not rely on user-submitted content like StumbleUpon, however. Instead, it’s based on algorithms and an internal team of curators.

    We asked StumbleUpon CEO Mark Bartels if the long-term goal is to continue these separate methods for content selection or whether we’ll see both services follow similar models. It would appear that the latter is the plan, but instead of of StumbleUpon adopting the 5by approach, it’s likely that we’ll see 5by adopt the StumbleUpon approach.

    “Long term as 5by scales you’ll see them leverage [the] SU ingestion engine which includes user submitted content,” Bartels tells us.

    In other words, 5by will only get more StumbleUpon-like. StumbleUpon users shouldn’t worry about StumbleUpon becoming more 5by-like when it comes to submitted content. StumbleUpon has no plans to move away from user submissions.

    “Quite the opposite,” Bartels says. “The highest quality content is typically user submitted. The new iOS build now allows uses to submit from Safari. [The] majority of stumbles are now on mobile so giving users [the] ability to submit directly from their mobile browsers or via a badge is [a] great tool. The ingestion engine quickly eliminates duplicates, spam and low quality content. Doing this fast and reliably is key to scaling.”

    The downloadable StumbleUpon toolbar for web browsers used to be a major part of the StumbleUpon experience. These days, it doesn’t seem to be the subject of a whole lot of focus from the company. For example, a while back, StumbleUpon made some changes to the submission experience from the “Submit” button, which sites (like the one you’re on) display on their content. In the past, users would select categories and tags for the content, but now StumbleUpon dictates this categorization on its own. If you submit with the toolbar, however, you still get the old experience.

    Asked if the bar is still being used much, Bartels says, “It still has a lot of power users, but the team resources & growth is on mobile and Web Toolbar. Publishers and brands have made huge leaps in creating mobile optimized stories that load quickly and is user friendly.”

    “Publishers’ natives pages are rendering beautifully within the apps and mobile web. We improve the discovery experience with lightning quick recommendations and pubs get the traffic kick,” he adds, noting that people do underestimate how big and solid the desktop market is.

    “A lot people spend ~8 hours a day in front of a PC,” he says. “Our strongest days on SU are always weekends and Mondays.”

    Publishers looking for increased exposure of their content through StumbleUpon shouldn’t be afraid of submitting their own stuff. Just make sure it’s good content.

    Bartels tells us, “We want to make the guidance clear and friendly to bloggers and businesses promoting quality content on SU. A strong SU community includes giving publishers and bloggers the ability to submit quality stories and not be penalized for self promotion. Ingestion and curation of quality stories is just as important as the discovery and sharing.”

    Just don’t go overboard. Make sure you remember the part about quality. And by all means, share good stuff from other sources too.

    Do you submit your own content to StumbleUpon? Let us know in the comments.

    Images via StatCounter, Shareaholic, Mark Bartels

  • StumbleUpon Makes First Acquisition: Video Discovery Service 5By

    StumbleUpon has acquired video discovery company 5by. This is the first acquisition StumbleUpon has made in its decade of existence.

    StumbleUpon’s Mike Mayzel tells us that 5by’s team of six people will move from Montreal to work in StumbleUpon’s San Francisco office.

    “We’re really excited about bringing their talent, expertise and technology to the company,” he says.

    To use 5by, users sign in with their Facebook accounts, then are greeted with a screen presenting them with video types:

    5by

    From there, you can go into sub-categories, and eventually start going through random videos, much like you would with StumbleUpon. It’s easy to see where this acquisition would be a perfect fit. Still, Mayzel tells us that 5by will continue to build and operate a standalone product (mobile and desktop).

    “In the future we will explore integration possibilities such as how 5by can leverage our recommendation technology and index and how we can enhance our own video recommendation experience with 5by,” he says.

    When asked if StumbleUpon would use 5by to deliver videos to users regardless of whether the videos were submitted by users, he said, ” A majority of our videos in SU are user curated while a very small percentage are ingested.”

    Last week, the company revealed some revenue numbers publicly for the first time, along with the news that it is now profitable. We had a conversation with CEO Mark Bartels about the company’s strategy and direction.

    This includes increased efforts in video discovery, and plans for a bigger presence across devices like connected televisions and gaming consoles.

    “We continue to invest in moving beyond desktop – and our mobile-first approach is focused on smartphones and tablets, but also interactive TVs and gaming consoles,” Bartels told WebProNews. “As we invest in these platforms our revenue continues to increase and this year our mobile share of revenue is 20%, and we expect that number to climb.”

    StumbleUpon expects to grow revenue to $35 – 40 million this year.

    As mentioned, 5by is the company’s first acquisition, but from the sound of it, we can probably expect more.

    “We are in a position now as a profitable company to make more acquisitions in the future but nothing specific to announce at this time,” Mayzel says.

    StumbleUpon would not share any specific plans regarding its TV/gaming console presence, but said “it’s on the roadmap.”

  • Exclusive: StumbleUpon CEO Gives Us A Big Update About What We Can Soon Expect

    StumbleUpon has been around since 2001, providing a unique way for Internet users to find websites and pages related to topics they’re interested in. The company has long provided a method of content discovery that has for one, gone virtually unparalleled by competitors, and for two, been lauded for years by marketers and webmasters who have have seen tremendous amounts of traffic to their own sites.

    Are you seeing significant results from StumbleUpon these days? Let us know in the comments.

    While the company has seen ups, downs and a lot of changes over the years (like being bought and eventually spun off by eBay), the company is still going strong despite laying off 30% of its staff in January, and having an otherwise quiet year with few announcements.

    Rest assured, StumbleUpon is doing just fine. As a spokesperson for the company recently told us, they’ve been keeping their “heads down, working on product,” in 2013. And that’s paying off. The company has been hiring again, and this week, revealed that it has achieved profitability, and for the first time, shared some revenue numbers.

    We had a conversation with CEO Mark Bartels, who took over the role after founder Garrett Camp stepped down last year, but has been with the company since 2008 (he was previously CFO) about StumbleUpon’s growth and strategy moving forward. Don’t expect things to be as quiet as they’ve been so far this year.

    StumbleUpon expects to grow revenue to $35 – 40 million this year, and a significant portion of its revenue is already coming from mobile. In fact, nearly 40% of all stumbles are coming from mobile (up from 20% in 2012). Last year, the company launched some major updates to its mobile apps, which drastically improved the StumbleUpon experience. Expect even more expansion into mobile and other devices, opening up a lot more potential for stumbling (and ultimately opportunities for advertisers and web traffic).

    “We continue to invest in moving beyond desktop – and our mobile-first approach is focused on smartphones and tablets, but also interactive TVs and gaming consoles,” Bartels tells WebProNews. “As we invest in these platforms our revenue continues to increase and this year our mobile share of revenue is 20%, and we expect that number to climb.”

    The new mobile apps included a lot of new features. One of them lets users stumble through content much more quickly, by showing quick previews before the pages finish loading.

    When asked if he attributes the growth in mobile stumbles to any specific feature, and whether the preview feature has affected sponsored content, Bartels tells us, “We have enhanced our overall mobile experience for both iOS and Android operating systems so that the recommendations and textual input we serve up to users is a better experience on small screens, wearable devices or set-top box.”

    “Around one out of every twenty stumbles is sponsored content. Since our over 30 million users interact with paid and unpaid content the same way, we have seen an increase in engagement across the board.”

    The company has over 100,000 advertisers that have created native ads. These include Comedy Central, Relativity Media, Levi’s, Elle and Harper’s Bazaar. Advertisers are going to be seeing some new opportunities.

    “StumbleUpon is rolling out new publisher and partner tools that allow advertising on our platforms to be simple and seamless,” Bartels says.

    “Recently we worked with Elle and Harpaar’s Bazaar around New York Fashion Week to engage StumbleUpon users and expand fashion coverage beyond their traditional audiences,” he notes.

    Elle Stumble The Trends

    When asked about the layoffs and how that has affected StumbleUpon’s growth, Bartels says, “The vision remains the same which is to help users discover and explore the best content on the web. We streamlined the company to focus more resources on engineering and product development in order to prioritize internationalization, moving beyond the desktop experience and our advertising platform. We are growing; we are hiring and have expanded to open up a second office in New York.”

    On how the company’s strategy has changed since he took over as CEO, he says, “StumbleUpon’s goal has always been to be the number one discovery tool, and since I have become CEO I have been working on a vision to bring this mission to life across multiple platforms. We are building the next generation of mobile-first products, maximizing personalization technologies and expanding internationally.”

    “In the near future, we will be expanding our mobile reach by releasing our Android app in German, Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Chinese,” he adds. “iOS is next.”

    Bartels says the company also intends to “continue the migration beyond the website and onto multiple platforms including interactive TVs, gaming devices, publisher sites and APIs.”

    “We predict that online video traffic will be the majority of all consumption by 2016 and mobile will be the driving platform. StumbleUpon will be taking advantage of this trend with new products and ways to discover video content.”

    Like I said, things aren’t going to be quiet at StumbleUpon for much longer.

    While StumbleUpon has continued to drive traffic huge traffic to websites, it sounds like those who are able to capitalize on it might be able to see even greater amounts. Stay tuned.

    Are you still seeing significant traffic from StumbleUpon? Success from its ad platform? Let us know in the comments

    Image: StumbleUpon