Ning, the Silicon Valley firm behind "social" websites such as 50 Cent’s and Radiohead’s fan sites, will open a UK office next week, following Facebook into London's advertising industry heartland, Soho.Co-founded in Silicon Valley in 2004 by high-profile internet entrepreneur and Facebook board member Marc Andreessen, Ning offers the tools for anyone to create their own website. It has never opened an office outside the US.
But from next Monday, June 20, Ning UK will officially open for business in Soho Square, at the centre of an area of London dominated by media agencies and advertising companies. Facebook is based a short walk away, just off Carnaby Street.
Ning caused a stir last year among the thousands of its website creators and the technology press, with its controversial decision to phase out free accounts and only support paying customers’ websites.
Jason Rosenthal, Ning’s chief executive and the person behind the decision to cancel the free option, told The Telegraph that the company had finally turned a profit for the first time last August and the success of the paid-for only model had allowed the company to expand overseas.
“Last year represented a big change for us. Ning had been a broadly used platform for long time with over 80 million registered users and 65 million active monthly active users.
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