7-billion to go: super productivity app Evernote hits 100-million users

You know that feeling of is-this-really-necessary frustration you get when you realise that you left that document at home? Or when you have to email yourself articles to read later, hunt for a business card, remember to bring your shopping list along or go haul out your laptop just to update one sentence in your next great blog post? No, chances are you don’t… if you’re an Evernote user.

What started out as a digital to do list app has morphed into a cross-platform productivity suite that lets you do everything from save photos, clip text from websites and record audio reminders to collaborate with team members on shared documents. The company’s vision to be a “100-year startup” and ensure free users still get a rich and functional app even without upgrading to premium seems to be paying off… it’s just announced it has passed the 100-million user mark.

In a blog post, CEO Phil Libin explains that while the majority of those users are downloaders of its flagship app (Evernote), its companion apps like snap-and-markup tool Skitch are also gaining traction:

“There are two ways to look at this,” writes Libin. “On the one hand, there are more than 100-million people whose lives have been touched, even a little bit, by something we made. On the other hand, there are still about 7-billion people who’ve never used any Evernote product. Both are pretty inspirational!”

The company’s push into China with a standalone service seems to helped grow its impact in the region — the company lists the Asia Pacific area as the home base for some 35-million users, with another 31-million residing in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Northern America (the US and Canada) accounts for around 27-million of its 100-million users, and Latin America rounds out the geographic list with 8-million users.

Interestingly, Libin says that the marketing spend to gain all those users has been minimal — so minimal, he estimates that they’ve spent less than one US cent on advertising per user. Instead, it seems the product has spread through word of mouth, app store rankings and positive reviews. Some 88-million users found Evernote products and downloaded them directly — only 13-million were referred by partners.