Dimdim
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Software, Web conferencing |
| Founded | 2006 |
| Fate | Acquired by Salesforce.com |
| Headquarters | Boston , United States |
| Products | Web conferencing platform |
| Parent | Salesforce.com (from 2011) |
Dimdim operated as a software company that provided a web-based platform designed for live collaboration and virtual meetings. Its web conferencing solution allowed participants to share their desktops, deliver presentations, engage in collaborative work, communicate via chat and voice, and stream through webcams. Frequently likened to the WebEx 2.0 conferencing tool, Dimdim was purchased by Salesforce.com for $31 million on January 6, 2011.
Investors
The company received funding from Index Ventures, Nexus India Capital, and Draper Richards.
Open source
Primarily available as an enterprise edition and a Virtual Machine appliance, Dimdim also offered an open source community edition licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL), enabling developers to deploy and manage it within their own infrastructures. The most recent open source release, version V4.5 "Liberty," launched in December 2008 on SourceForge.net, was criticized due to missing installation guidelines and several functional constraints, leading some to describe it as a "crippled" version. Nevertheless, distributions compatible with various operating systems, virtual machine images, and related documentation continue to be accessible on SourceForge.net.
Dimdim supported integration with e-learning platforms such as Moodle, Claroline, and Docebo, along with collaborative environments like Zimbra and CRM systems including SugarCRM. Unlike the hosted web service offerings, the open source server edition imposed no restrictions on participant numbers or concurrent meeting sessions.
By December 2010, following the company's acquisition, the open source version was solely obtainable through SourceForge.net as Dimdim halted further contributions to the project. Subsequently, in January 2011, an open source derivative named miDmiD was initiated.
History
The initial alpha release of Dimdim occurred in autumn 2006, followed by a private beta phase in autumn 2007 and a public beta launch in April 2008. The beta for version 4.0 was introduced in July 2008, with the official end of beta status marked by version 4.5 in December 2008.
In late 2008, Starin Marketing, Inc., a U.S.-based provider of audio-visual equipment, collaborated with Sundar Subramanian to create an on-premises turnkey solution that integrated Dimdim software with Starin’s hardware products aimed at facilitating multi-user collaboration.
The upgrade to Dimdim version 5.5 received negative feedback for resembling an alpha release due to extensive interface redesigns and significant changes to its integration API capabilities with other platforms.
Acquisition
Dimdim was acquired by Salesforce.com for US$31 million on January 6, 2011.
Revenue streams
As of 2010, Dimdim provided hosted meeting services comparable to those offered by GoToMeeting. Its free tier allowed meetings with up to ten participants; professional plans featuring advanced collaboration tools supported up to 50 users at a monthly rate of US$25; while webinar hosting options accommodated up to 100 users or as many as 1,000 attendees for US$75 per month.