Evernote is fast becoming a towering success, no one can deny that. Taking the stage at LeWeb Paris, CEO Phil Libin announced the company’s new offering: Evernote Business.
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The note-taking service, which just got a new round of funding, was originally developed as a consumer product but has seen increased usage in business, says Libin. He believes that the enterprise experience shouldn’t be “crappy” when it comes to software but have the same feel as “business class”.
Evernote Business is an extension of the company’s core service for small and medium-sized business, and features improved data continuity with better group sharing.
The service currently has 45-million users worldwide with the USA, Japan, China, UK, South Korea, Canada, Germany, Spain, Russia and Brazil boasting more than one-million users each.
“We launched in Korea and it was more than a million users almost overnight,” says Libin. “Japan is about 20% of our users, China is growing even faster. None of this would have happened if weren’t building products for ourselves, if were building what we thought the market wanted.” He said that 66% of users use Evernote at work, but only 15% actually got it from their employers — the rest started using it unofficially.
Libin says the key to the company’s success is based on its strategy of only build products for its employees would want to use. By doing so, it builds products people want and like.
The launch of Evernote Business is a way for “companies to discover the knowledge they have locked away,” he adds. For Libin it is about building an experience that users will want to be part of, hence he feels all the company’s products must be beautiful and make collaboration easier.
With business notes are clearly divided between personal and company, the app experience is mostly the same but with added functionality.
“It tells you what information your co-workers have before you ask,” says Libin. It allows users to search for related information from documents shared by colleagues, which will be available through in-app search and Google search results. “When I signal intent that I need to know something, it must just know.”
“We’re not a social site, it’s about getting something accomplished,” he says.
The enterprise-focused version of Evernote is now available in seven countries: France, Germany, Switzerland, Canada, Japan, and the United States at US$10 per user. It is available for Mac, iOS, Android and Windows Desktop.
