WordPress

WordPress

WordPress.com is a blog web hosting service provider owned by Automattic,[3] and powered by the open source WordPress software.[4] It provides free blog hosting for registered users and is financially supported via paid upgrades,[5] "VIP" services and advertising.

The site opened to beta testers on August 8, 2005 and opened to the public on November 21, 2005[citation needed]. It was initially launched as an invitation-only service, although at one stage, accounts were also available to users of the Flock web browser.[6][7] There were over 56 million individual blogs with the service as of October 13, 2012.[8]

Registration is not required to read or comment on blogs hosted on the site, except if chosen by the blog owner. Registration is required to own, or post in, a weblog. All the basic and original features of the site are free-to-use. However, some features (including CSS editor, domain mapping, Domain Registration, Removal of Ads, Website Redirection, Video Upload, and storage upgrades) are available as paid options.[9]

There are nearly 60 million WordPress.com sites, which receive more than 100 million pageviews per day.[citation needed] Every day over one million new articles and over one million comments are published.[10] Some notable clients include CNN, CBS, BBC, Reuters, Sony and Volkswagen.[11][12]

In September 2010, it was announced that Windows Live Spaces, Microsoft's blogging service, would be closing, and that Microsoft would instead be partnering with WordPress.com for blogging services.[13]