OpenSource Commercialization With Fit2Cloud

I just read the article about the business mode with open source commercialization in fit2cloud, which is really impressive, so I wrote down some highlights here for future reference. Note that, the original article was written in Chinese.

For short, fit2cloud business mode is based on the open source freemium model, the essential parts of the mode is:

• Huge user base and keep growing
• Increasing paid conversion rate

Simple but right to the point.

To growing their user base, fit2cloud did a bunch of things, for a summary:

• easy to use: they focused on the user experience rather than the function at the beginning, I totally agree with the decision
• easy to access: they provided several ways to install their software and offered an online playground for trial
• software propagation: they provided a lot of documents, tutorials, and videos to help users to understand their software, they also cooperated with some high schools and universities for training courses
• community building: they built a community to help users to solve problems and share experiences

Besides, to reach a border user base, they partnered with other softwares to offer a more comprehensive solution, and break into the overseas market, which is a smart strategy for a proven open source project I think. In open source world, the winner takes all.

To increase the paid conversion rate, I think there’s no special secret, like offering more functions for the paid users, and better support.

What I totally agree with the opinion of the article is end users are becoming the key decision makers in the purchase of software products, if I’m the CEO of an open source company, I would definitely focus on the user experience and the community building.