Type Subsidiary Website www.homestead.com Revenue 6.67 million USD Founders Thai Bui, Justin Kitch | Industry Web services CEO Justin Kitch (1998–) Number of employees 116 (2015) | |
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Key people Justin S. Kitch (Chairman and CEO) Services Web hosting serviceE-commerce servicesOnline advertising Parent organization | ||
Homestead Technologies is a web hosting company based in Burlington, Mass. Homestead offers its members WYSIWIG tools to build and publish their own websites. Since its founding in 1997 as a free service provider, Homestead has expanded the scope of its services to include online marketing, paid search ads, SEO tools and e-commerce services. Homestead.com, which launched in June 1998 enables Internet users to build a feature-rich website by integrating and customizing content, with focus on small businesses and e-commerce and their related services, such as consulting, listings and online business directories. Homestead was chosen five times as winner of PC Magazine’s “Top 100 Web site award: the best 100 sites on the Net” in April 2000, July 1999, April 1999, June 1998 and March 1998. Homestead is the pioneer of bringing build-your-own-website technology, but today many other companies offer the similar service, such as companies like Squarespace, Weebly, Wix and Squarebob.
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History
Founded in October 1997 by Justin S. Kitch and Thai Bui in Menlo Park, California, Homestead quickly made the rounds for its accessibility and ease of use. Its proprietary drag-and-drop SiteBuilder platform enabled users with no prior knowledge of coding or web programming to create fully functioning websites for personal, educational or business use. Homestead is geared mostly mostly towards small business owners, non-profit administrators, retailers, and hobbyists, unlike competitors such as Angelfire and Yahoo! GeoCities, who target more casual users. By October 1999 member registrations reached two million.
In October 2003 Homestead Technologies launched PhotoSite, a photo sharing and web hosting service tailored to amateur digital photography. In March 2005, PhotoSite was sold to United Online.
In December 2007 Homestead was acquired by financial and tax preparation software giant Intuit for $170 million to bolster its web hosting offerings. On August 16, 2012, Intuit announced that Homestead would be purchased by Burlington (Mass.) web hosting company Endurance International Group.