Business opportunities in the Joomla world

I’ve been following the Joomla GPL debate really closely, but have stayed away from blogging about my opinion. I’m not a 3rd party developer, nor I am I knowledgeable enough about the GPL to add more to the debate than others already contributing.

What does fascinate me and cross into my direct sphere of knowledge is the issue of GPL business models. I’ve already rambled a little about business under the GPL and would love to pick the brains of you guys too:

How can GPL businesses suceed?

I currently see three companies with a chance of GPL success:

  1. Quality: RokZine – its easy to predict that a lot of organizations will see the need for an “industrial strength magazine”. iJoomla is the current non-GPL market leader.
  2. Money: Account Expiration – Selling site subscriptions directly affects people’s bottom line. It has two non-GPL rivals, JContentSubscription and Joomlaware (which no longer seems to be developed).
  3. Community: JCE WYSIWYG Editor. JCE has already been running for? several years and has built up a strong following. Plus, Joomla’s default WYSIWYG editor sucks.

What business niches are available for Joomla GPL companies?

Selling small stuff probably won’t work. My feeling is that subscribers will move towards those companies that can offer mission-critical extensions. Companies will need a niche they can dominate.

My question for you guys is – what extensions does Joomla desperately need?

I’ll start … a professional-quality job-board. So many community sites out there have a forum, blogs, photo galleries and other addons, but aside from the relatively basic Jobline, the job-posting field is wide open. I’m sure theres a good market for a sophisticated jobs component, with a wide range of listing and categoriziation options and PayPal payment for listings.

Over to you …. what areas are still wide open for a smart Joomla entrepreneur?

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