It was just announced yesterday, Febuary 1st, that Magento recently surpassed 4 million downloads of Magento Community.  Roy Rubin, co-founder and CEO of Magento, made this announcement in an interview with Internet Retailer.  Rubin also informed Internet Retailer that Magento has also experienced increased sales of Enterprise and Go.  Magento Enterprise requires a license, while Magento Go is a SaaS (software as a service) offering.

After Magento was acquired by eBay, Inc. in 2011, Roy Rubin was named the General Manager of Magento within eBay.  Late last summer, eBay announced X.commerce, which is an open commerce technology platform based on a joint venture between eBay, PayPal, Magento, and GSI Commerce.  Magento’s clients include thousands of retailers whose size ranges from less than $1 million per year to more than $100 million.  Magento Enterprise is used for big name clients such as The North Face (number 138 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide) and menswear retailer, Bonobos, Inc.

The Magento Community edition is typically the product companies and independent technology developers start off with to explore Magento’s open source platform.  Open source technology means that the software code is publicly available, which allows a community of developers to create new add-on features that can be made available for other users.  The Community edition of Magento typically requires that the company invest time and expertise into getting their site off the ground.  For merchants who cannot do that, Magento Go is the best option because it is a SaaS offering that can be deployed quickly by employees who do not have a background in website design and development.

Magento is also branching out thanks to eBay’s release of the X.commerce platform last summer.  Magento is working within X.commerce to integrate with other eBay eCommerce technologies and services.  According to Rubin, “We’re spending a lot of time working within the eBay family, taking advantage of synergies to provide a one-stop shop for an e-commerce platform and online payments.”  In addition, Magento is also working with large eBay retailers as well as merchants who don’t sell on eBay to explore the various options available.  Rubin expanded, “We’re looking at a wide spectrum of what merchants need and what assets we can provide to help them fulfill those needs.”

Over the past several months, Magento has shown internal growth as well.  About 75 people have been added to the Magento staff in the last six months, which brings the total number of dedicated Magento employees to more than 400.

Despite Magento’s growth, the eCommerce platform comes in outside of the top three most popular platforms.  The three largest eCommerce competitors include Demandware Inc., WebSphere Commerce (by IBM Corp.), and ATG (by Oracle Corp.).  It is possible that Magento could be looking to compete with these larger platforms, but will probably find its niche is still for retailers with $100 million or less in sales.

Grant Tildsley, Online Sales and Development Manager for Ted’s Camera Stores says using Magento has provided their company with “e-commerce best practice and continual development and updates.”  Tildsley also said, “The fact that Magento is open-source allows for a plethora of new support and extensions.”

As dedicated Magento developers, we are very excited to see what the future holds for Magent0 and X.commerce.  Check back here often for updates!

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