MUKESH PATEL SCHOOL OF TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT & ENGINEERING

e-Business Assignment
Study Of the Envato Network

Abbas Dawood
MBA (Tech) IT
Shirpur Campus
101

Envato.com /Tuts+/ AppStorm / Creative Eco Network / Marketplaces

Table of Contents
Envato: What is it? ..................................................................................................................... 1
How does Envato Earn? ............................................................................................................. 2
The Strategy ............................................................................................................................... 3
The Competition ........................................................................................................................ 3
Competitive Advantage ............................................................................................................. 3
Community Outreach ................................................................................................................. 4
Envato: User Experience and Feel good factors ........................................................................ 4
The Team ................................................................................................................................... 5
Collis Ta'eed, CEO ................................................................................................................. 6
Cyan Ta’eed, Founder ............................................................................................................ 6
Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 7
Appendix A Data Tables and Illustrations Listing ............................................................... 8
Bibliography .............................................................................................................................. 9

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Envato: What is it?
Envato is a start up based in Australia with a mash up of people and freelancers working
online using the digital media and the internet as a basis for business. Envato was started as
company that promotes the interests of the freelancing community and focuses on the growth
of the community per se. With the growth of the community it brings different cultures
together, mixing and tossing them resulting in a creative outburst and leading to a pool of
resources for the people who need them. Envato thus has two facets,
1. one targeting the freelancing community that wants to make a living out of the web
and digital media world
2. The second one focuses on the users of such products, for e.g. any small company that
wants to establish itself by making use of the web; or a person/organisation in need of
digital media to serve a particular utility (banners, post production et al.)
Envato operates as a B2C organisation, business being the entire freelancing community and
the end consumer can be any one, ranging from another web or application developer in need
of resources to another person who may want to have a digital presence but does not have the
necessary knowledge or nothing to start up with.
The Envato Marketplaces 1 are a set of interconnected websites that permit any registered user
to buy or sell digital products, ranging from royalty free stock content to website templates to
offering guidance on how to start off on the web. One single account is universal for all the
marketplaces on the Envato network.
The second feature consists of the web based educational sites called Tuts+ and leading blogs
like FreelanceSwitch and AppStorm. These serve as a pool of amazing resources that help
hone a digital media developers skill sets. They also guide a newbie into the world of digital
media and the Web.

Fig 1 The Envato Network

1
The term Envato Marketplaces should not be confused with the regular marketplace. Envato Marketplaces is a
chain started by Envato network to provide services under differet heads.

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How does Envato Earn?
Envato provides it’s several digital media purchase and sale services through a web based
platform. The following is the list of places and what you can buy from them:

• ActiveDen – Royalty free stock items for Adobe products for as low as $1
• AudioJungle – Royalty free music clippings
• GraphicRiver – Adobe Photoshop Files, Vector Graphics, Icon sets for as low as $1
• ThemeForest – Site templates and themes for CMS like WordPress, Joomla, Drupal
for as low as $5
• VideoHive – Royalty free stock footage, motion graphics for as low as $2
• 3dOcean – 3D Models, textures, materials, shaders
• CodeCanyon – Web based scripting and Java resources as low as $3
Anyone can sell their products on the Envato marketplaces, all one needs to do is enrol with
Envato under the authoring agreement. Everytime an item is sold on any of the Envato
Marketplaces, a percentage of the sale price goes to the author. The amount is determined by
whether the author’s past earning details and the marketplace he/ she choses to operate from.
The payment is also based on the uniqueness of the sale. This means that the if there is any
chance that the author puts up the item on multiple sites, you cannot sell the same items on
Envato.
Should the author sell on his/her own site, then the author is bound by a non exclusive
agreement with Envato, which starts commission rates at 25% (only in these cases)
Envato also pays up upto 30% commission for referrals i.e. Referring new users to any of the
Envato Marketplaces

% Commission Sales Volume $

40% 0
50% 30,500
60% 107,190
70% 300,000

Table 1 Rate Schedule

Every item sold / hosted on Envato marketplaces is checked for plagiarism before being
displayed to the community or customers so as to ensure the genuine nature of the work
Payment Gateways like PayPal, MoneyBrookers or Payoneer help process the money authors
earn by digital goods sales
Needless to say, one has to be registered with Envato as an author; which itself includes the
author to be examined by a testing system which will ensure that the authors are clear with
the way the site functions. Membership is not free, and a good share of revenue comes from
registrations alone.
Also, advertisements form a huge part of the revenue.

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The Strategy
Envato follows and promotes the concept of a Location independent professionalism, which
can be simply put as:

“Live & Work Anywhere You Choose”

Envato follows the remote working model, where clients are contacted via the web, with
conferences being held at hours not feasible for working. But that is a necessary evil for a
location independent working environment.
However mobile the team maybe, its only the Chief Executives that are mobile; the rest of the
organisation either stays back in Australia or other parts of the world.
“Use freelancers as much as you can. Permanent staff will be a real asset.”
Collis Ta’eed (CEO, Envato)

The Competition
Envato operates in the Consumer Internet Industry, which has no competitors offering the
said services. 2 This itself adds an edge to the company. And with the network continuously
launching new networks, it has established itself quite some name on the World Wide Web.

Competitive Advantage
The marketplaces and the support services provided by the Envato network, form a part of an
ecosystem that is foolproof and well settled. Quality checks on submitted content and history
of sales made by the author makes the commission system and pay rates a very reliable portal
for showcasing and commercialization of ideas and content.
The network had started out with a blog, and has now extended the product lines it offers. A
major player in how the site has shaped up is the technology industry, with heavy weights
like Adobe and Zend contributing to the formation of community content that can be
commercialized.
Of course there are other sites that promote freelancing, but in this multimedia and web
segment, Envato is the leader. With its promotion campaigns on any huge multimedia launch
(E.g. the Launch of Adobe CS5 suite in June, 2010), and focus on current technologies and
segments (such as Photography and Mobile Application Development) and dedicated product
lines (Adobe, Macintosh etc.) Envato has revolutionised the freelancing movement and has
created an ecosystem that is highly modular, expandable and well organised.

2
According to VentureBeatProfiles, 2009

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Community Outreach
The staff of Envato and a group of volunteer bloggers started the non-profit activity called
Blog Action Day. It started as a “What If” question and simply grew from the very basic
question. It is all about the importance of the world becoming a global village by elevating
the conversation of the world. It is a day when bloggers, podcasters and video casters around
the world collectively post on the same issue at the same time, thus mashing up their ideas.
Envato also continues to support a number of other global charities and institutions who
believe in and act for the betterment of the world.

Fig 2 Blog Action Day

Envato: User Experience and Feel good factors

Over 6 million visits a month, including the marketplaces
In April 2009, a period which saw the world economy crunch, users on Envato were making
use of the digital world to make profits as high as $250,000
"What is so exciting about our marketplaces is that they enable anyone with the talent to
very quickly start selling digital goods. The result is thousands of people suddenly getting
access to a new income stream, something that is invaluable in this economic climate."
Collis Ta'eed, CEO and founder of
Envato

"It (FlashDen) has been a truly awesome journey being a member of this site and it has
literally changed my life."
Pierre a.ka. DigitalScience, FlashDen User

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The Team
Collis Ta'eed, CEO / Founder
Vahid Ta'eed, CFO / Founder
Jun Rung, Director / Founder
Cyan Ta'eed, Director / Founder
Simon Wilson, Marketing
Justine Kippin, Accounts
Fuad Ta'eed, Business Development
Rodney Blackney, Design
Jason Ellis, Marketplace Manager
Lance Snider, Lead Site Manager /
ActiveDen
Jeffrey Way, CodeCanyon
Scott Wills, AudioJungle
Mark Brodhuber, VideoHive
ThemeForest
Amanda Hackwith, GraphicRiver
Matthias Andre, 3dOcean
David Appleyard, AppStorm
Jarel Remick, AppStorm
Travis King, Snipplr
John Barton, Development Manager
James Dowling, Ruby
Erin Francis, Ruby
Lucas Parry, Ruby
Glen Maddern, Ruby
Ian Leitch, Ruby
Pete Yandell, Ruby
Stuart Richardson, Front-End
Skellie, Tuts+ Manager
Aaron Osteraas, Assistant Manager
Ryan Allen, Plus Mad Scientist
Fred Wu, Ruby
Derek Herman, Plus Front-end
Naysan Naraqi, RockablePress
Roger Byrne, Plus Advertising
Sean Hodge, Creative Sessions
Jeffrey Way, Nettuts+
Grant Friedman, Psdtuts+
Kate McInnes, Vectortuts+
Adam E. Miller, Aetuts+
Ian Yates, Activetuts+
Michael Williams, Activetuts+
/
Adrian Try, Audiotuts+
David Appleyard, Phototuts+
Matt Brealey, Cgtuts+
Mark Hammonds, Mobiletuts+
Joel Falconer, Business Blogs
Amanda Hackwith, FreelanceSwitch
Mike Vardy, WorkAwesome
Joseph Lewis, TheNetsetter
Jordan McNamara, Support & Community
Manager
Drew Douglass, Support Asst Team Lead
Anis Ta'eed, Support
Japheth Thomson, Support
Thinesh Paramalingam, Support
Ibrahim Rodríguez, Anti-Piracy
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Collis Ta'eed, CEO
Collis likes to joke that when it comes to starting websites he has a slight attention deficit
disorder. After co-founding the company in 2006 and launching the marketplace ActiveDen,
Collis was responsible for one side project after another that have since grown with the help
of a killer team of writers, editors, developers and management, into many of the flagship
products you read about on this site.
Most Envato sites begin life in one of Collis' many Moleskine notebooks where he
obsessively scribbles down numbers and plans, diagrams and mock-ups. As chief web
designer he then heads up the Photoshop work to bring those plans to life before handing it
all over to Envato's crack team of developers to build.

Cyan Ta’eed, Founder

After working first as a graphic designer and then running a small freelance design business
together with her husband Collis, she cofounded Envato as a way to work online on creative
websites and get to travel the world!
Cyan’s expertise at project management has led to her managing virtually every one of
Envato's brands at one time or another. She has a particular talent for rendering order out of
the chaos that is the by-product of quick growth and early launching.

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Conclusion
Envato started in 2006 with a simple idea - make awesome websites! Today they operate
marketplaces, blogs, educational sites and sites that help people start their own careers. All their sites
are currently in high demand with site traffic reaching a few millions. Their model demands
freelancing and earning a great deal in return. With their unique model of revenue, they can keep all
the authors and the organisation satisfied.

The alexa rank for the Envato network sites are listed below:

Launched Envato Network Alexa Rank

August 2006 The Marketplaces 1,232
April 2007 Creative 9,464
July 2007 Tuts+ 1,121
January 2009 AppStorm 17,525

Table 2 Alexa Ranks of Envato Network Sites

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Appendix A Data Tables and Illustrations Listing
Fig 1The Envato Network.......................................................................................................... 1
Fig 2 Blog Action Day ............................................................................................................... 4

Table 1Rate Schedule ................................................................................................................ 2

Table 2 Alexa Ranks of Envato Network Sites ......................................................................... 7

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Bibliography
Envato - Company Information on Envato. (n.d.). Retrieved from VentureBeatProfiles:
http://venturebeatprofiles.com/company/profile/envato
Envato. (n.d.). Becoming an Author. Retrieved from Envato:
http://wiki.envato.com/category/selling/author-selling/
Envato. (n.d.). Envato Marketplace Wki. Retrieved from Envato: http://wiki.envqto.com
Envato. (n.d.). Licenses | Envato marketplace Wiki. Retrieved from Envato:
http://wiki.envato.com/category/buying/licenses-buying/
Envato Pty. (2008). Envato. Retrieved from Envato: http://envato.com
Woodward, L. (n.d.). Interview with fellow LIPs. Retrieved from Location Independent
Professionals: http://locationindependentprofessionals.com/2008/11/05/an-interview-with-
fellow-lips-cyan-collis-taeed-of-envato/

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