Published on the 21/08/2014 | Written by Newsdesk
ThemeForest has cracked the top 100 website list compiled by Alexa – at time of writing it’s at number 79 on the list – just after dropbox.com but ahead of Google.com.au…
Melbourne-based Envato’s ThemeForest has struck a chord with online content developers delivering it with an impressive ranking on the Alexa list of the world’s most visited websites.
ThemeForest is one of the Envato properties which have been established to support online content developers and businesses. Launched in 2008 the site sells themes for websites and digital projects, and has more than 15,000 items for sale typically costing between $3 and $63 for a website template.
Ben Chan, director of strategy and business development, described the company as, “the eBay for digital content”.
He said that the company’s overarching mission “is to help people earn and learn online” by lowering the barriers for people wanting to develop online businesses.
Besides ThemeForest Envato offers a range of services including online tutorials that provide insight on everything from building websites to creating wedding videos; a site which buys and sells code templates and plug-ins that can be used to enhance websites; and a sister website that delivers tools to build e-commerce functionality into websites.
Envato’s marketplaces – ActiveDen, AudioJungle, CodeCanyon, ThemeForest, GraphicRiver, VideoHive, 3DOcean and PhotoDune – host almost six million items, ranging from stock photos to sound clips, and are used by four million individuals and organisations, a number which has doubled in the past year according to Chan.
The company also operates the Envato Studio which brings together freelance workers with organisations looking for particular skills.
The company hosts its sites across a variety of infrastructure suppliers including Amazon and Rackspace.
According to Chan, “WordPress is now powering 22 percent of the web, and we’re the world’s biggest WordPress theme marketplace”.
The privately held company does not reveal its revenues or profits. It is a sizeable business however, with around 250 employees, mostly based in Australia. Chan said that the business model relied on the company taking a percentage of everything sold on the site which varied between 30 and 67 percent.
Since its launch in 2006, Envato has paid its international community of designers, authors, freelancers, affiliates and instructors more than $180 million in earnings. Chan said that every item was reviewed for security, quality and functionality before being admitted to one of Envato’s sites.
