Canadian Startup Hootsuite Hits Five Million User Milestone

By: Talha Bhatti  |   November 3rd, 2012   |   Business, News, O Canada

Canadian social media management startup, Hootsuite, announced on November 1 that it had successfully gained its 5 millionth user. The company has been in business for approximately three years but has seen accelerated growth in the last two years where it added 4 million users alone. The site has become a global powerhouse and is now working in 200 countries and offers services in more than 20 languages.

 

Dave Olson, vice president of community, states that Hootsuite’s comes from the fact that it was created for non-technical users. He also states that Hootsuite’s competitors focused on developing tools for expert technology users but his firm focuses on marketers and brand managers who use multiple social media channels but are not technology gurus. Olson claims that, “Anyone can jump in, whether from a non-profit group, or you just want to set up Twitter and Facebook for your softball team, we have a tool that everyone can use.”

 

Hootsuite offers a free account that many individual users take advantage of but the company makes money from companies and social media firms. These parties purchase a pro account that has unlimited options and detailed analytics. A third paid package is the enterprise version for large companies like McDonalds, PepsiCo, WWF, Lamborghini, Virgin and Sony Music. The pro and enterprise users generate enough revenue that the company can keep growing even though they have a substantial free user base.

 

Olson claims his company’s growth is based on seizing opportunities. He says, “You can plan all you want, but when an opportunity presents itself to tell the story or get involved in a story, you have to be nimble enough to seize and participate in that story.”

 

For the Canadian company, the Egypt revolution in 2011 was an opportunity and a turning point. After the Egyptian shut down social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter, Hootsuite was the only one left standing and received instant international media attention. Olson says, “For 36 hours, we were the voice of the revolution, the US embassy, Christiane Amanpour, CNN, every social message that went out from Egypt during that time went out through Hootsuite.”

 

The quick growth can be easily gauged form the hiring habits at the start up which had 45 employees a year ago and is now pushing 200 staff members. The company has also kept Vancouver, its home and has no plans of moving away to Silicon Valley or New York. The startup plans to keep growing by expanding internationally and focusing on mobile.

 

Olson says that, “We want to make this into a billion dollar company, and we are not there yet. We all know we can add more value to this. We are having a great time building this company despite our ugly officers and chaotic environment.”

 

Source: Global BC