Tariq KRIM interviewed after CHAPPAZ quits Netvibes

Hi,

Tariq KRIM (CEO and founder of Netvibes) has given his first interview at neteco.com a French website about the net economy. and he speaks about the situation after former Co-CEO Pierre Chappaz has left the company with some other top managers.

First, Tariq presents the Top Managers of Netvibes:
Franck Mahon , Lead product manager
Francois Hodierne, Chief Architect
Freddy Mini, COO
Annabelle Malherbe, CFO

On the points of disagreement with Pierre Chappaz , Tariq Krim says:
" I did not share with (Pierre) him the urgency to compromise our product strategy by offering services as third partiy suppliers ."

On the Competition from Wikio (founded and managed by Pierre Chappaz) with their new RSS service, Tariq Krim says that Netvibes is already the Third Source for RSS reading (according to Feedburner : well here we see Fourth...)

On Revenues, Tariq Krim is explicit when he says that RSS will only give marginal revenues and that he believes more on Widgets monetisation. "We work at the moment with numerous partners on monetization and branding of the Widgets".

Tariq Krim clarifies also that there was no disagreement with Chappaz on the Exit strategy or Selling Out.

Also THOUVENIN, Business Development Exec. quits Netvibes

Hi,

After yesterday's Announcement that Co-CEO Pierre Chappaz was quitting Netvibes, one of his men has also resigned from Netvibes.

Marc THOUVENIN, Business Development Executive at Netvibes, French 31, has just announced on his Blog that he was leaving Netvibes and joining Chappaz's WIKIO to become Marketing Exec.

It seems that this will not be the last move in the team and that Netvibes will have to clarify its strategy on distribution and monetization .

Meanwhile, Tariq KRIM, Netvibes founder and CEO, is "twisting from netvibes iPhone version "

Pierre CHAPPAZ, co-CEO, quits Netvibes

Hi,

Pierre CHAPPAZ, co-CEO of Netvibes since June 2006, has just announced on his Blog that he was quitting Netvibes on a desagreement with founder Tariq Krim over the Business Model of Netvibes.

Chappaz, also founder and CEO of Wikio, has pointed out that since the beginning there was a different point of vue over the future of Netvibes and that the actual development of the Universes of Netvibes was not in line with his own ideas.

The main objective of Pierre Chappaz , who in in 2004 already sold Kelkoo to Yahoo for €475 million, was to find ways to create a solid distribution and a way to make money... That seems not already the case.

Pierre Chappaz writes that he remains shareholder of Netvibes, but for how long?

The actual Business Model of Netvibes is not clear... and Tariq Krim, founder and co-CEO of Netvibes is reported to have said: "Once users are happy, I am sure the revenue model will make itself clear."

Pierre Chappaz was not patient enough...

In the mean time Tariq Krim is enjoing the new i-phone , he just bought in San Francisco...

Netvibes has 7 Milion users says Chappaz (co-CEO)

Hi,

In a statement made by Pierre Chappaz, co CEO at Netvibes, during the Web2 summit in San Fransisco - Netvibes say they are going to integrate the use of Google gadgets, of which there are 1,531 (although it can be discussed as to whether or not some of these qualify as widgets & not just RSS feeds) but also that Netvibes has over 7 million users, up 2 million since september. Half of those using Netvibes are in the USA.
Numbers are confirmed in the French Blog of Pierre Chappaz.

In a new post in his Blog, Chappaz talks of "nearly 10 millions users" and refers as a source to... Alexa. As I already posted, Alexa data seem ridiculously inaccurate ...

Who is behind Netvibes ? part 1

Hi,

never wondered to know who is behind Netvibes ?

Here is what I found ... not on their web site but looking on Google.

Updated
1) Tariq KRIM, Founder and first CEO of Netvibes (2005-2008): French, born October 25, 1972
BIO
Studied engineering at ENST in Paris, one of France's grandes écoles, and went back to America for an internship at Sun Microsystems.
On his blog, we are informed this Pionner of French Internet, back in 1993 had founded the first Web radio in Paris and was then fully involved in the new digital sound arena.
In 1996 he in the Sylicon Valley but hen he comes back to Paris to work as a joiurnalist for La Tribune. In 1997 he is back in the States where the Digital Music Industry is growing.
Back again in France in 1999 and, end 1999, he launches mptrois.com provinding download links to MP3 files with the agreement of the right holders.
The web site becomes then GenerationMP3.com a still successful French blog/Forum on MP3 players.
On the side, Tariq gets also involved with P2P networks and acts as a consultant for many different players of the internet business.

The 15th of September 2005, he launches NETVIBES.
In May 2008, Krim resigns as CEO but will remain on the Board.
New CEO is now Freddy Mini, former COO.


Video interview of October 2006 of Tariq on YouTube , another one of October 2006 on MobuzzTv, here another one of May 2006, a French interview of March 2006


2) Florent FREMONT, founder and developer of Netvibes: French, born 1978

Florent is a web developer specialized on interface design. He’s been developing rich internet applications in Flash since 1999, he is now devoted on building web2.0 services using Ajax and having fun with the DOM.
From his online CV we know that this young developer is involved with Netvibes development since July 2005. He is a founder with Tariq KRIM.
The first message in the Netvibes blog, the 15th September 2005 announcing the first release of netvibes was signed Florent Fremont.

Here an interview with Florent in French and here an early one of October 2005.
Old Blog of Florent FREMONT


3) Pierre CHAPPAZ, co-CEO Netvibes (June 2006-July 2007): French, born 1959 .

BIO
This former IBM and TOSHIBA manager with consulting experience decides in 1999 to launch Kelkoo.com with Remy Amouroux, Christophe Odin, Jerome Mercier et Mauricio Lopez.
Kelkoo has since then become the first European shopping search engine almost in every European country with more then 50 millions European users.
In 2004, the company is sold Yahoo for €475 million. Pierre spent a year with Yahoo! in various roles and ultimately as President of Yahoo! Europe.
Now in 2006, he is co-CEO of Netvibes and founder and CEO of Wikio a new user managed news search engine.
He is also director on the board of Photoways the European leader for online photo printing and advisor to the Index Ventures an European venture capital fund that is also founding Netvibes (and one of the first investors in SKYPE).

In July 2007, Pierre CHAPPAZ announces that is quitting all his fonctions in Netvibes but that he remains shareholder

Pierre CHAPPAZ blog in French

to be continued (PART 2) ...