Image processing: Gigtime
When Microsoft announced in 2018 that it was acquiring the world’s largest open source repository, GitHub, for $7.5 billion, it took the development world by surprise. Many wondered whether Microsoft would be able to maintain the character and uniqueness that made GitHub what it is, especially given Microsoft’s past references to open source. Now, as part of its financial reports for the 3rd quarter of 2022, Microsoft is revealing for the first time some of the numbers and amounts behind GitHub, and it seems that it is definitely on the right track.
3 times more fixed income
According to Microsoft, its total annual recurring revenue – or ARR – was $1 billion. By comparison, before the acquisition by Microsoft, GitHub’s ARR was reportedly $200-300 million.
As you may remember, after the purchase voices of open source activists and GitHub users were heard, calling to abandon the platform because of the merger with the corporation. But now it turns out that one of the main reasons for this increase in revenue is actually due to an increase in the number of active users: if before the acquisition GitHub registered 73 million active users, today Microsoft reports 90 million active users.
This is how Microsoft lifted GitHub
Source: Microsoft
Since Microsoft took the reins of GitHub, many were afraid that it would push its products at the expense of the repository, and make its users hate it. But Satya Nadala’s Microsoft is not Steve Ballmer’s Microsoft, and the company has invested in the development of the existing platform: from allowing developers to pay; Android and iOS app release; expansion of the free routes; Addition of Dark Mode (thank God); easier integration to VS Code, Microsoft’s popular IDE; And of course, above all, the launch of CoPilot, completes the somewhat controversial automated code, which is responsible for an increasing part of the code written in the world. This collaboration was made possible mainly thanks to Microsoft’s $1 billion investment in OpenAI, which is, among other things, behind GPT-3. Now there seems to be an effect for the growth in the number of users and Microsoft’s new monetization capabilities.
In an interview with TechCrunch, GitHub CEO Thomas Domek explained that in his opinion, the company has done an excellent job of keeping GitHub in its original form: “You don’t see Microsoft on Github.com any more than you did 4 years ago, and that helped us continue to grow, And we are very excited about the continuation.’
According to him, Microsoft puts the developers first, just like what GitHub does: “I’m an optimistic person, so in my opinion any company can achieve this (Github’s achievement, AB) if they stay focused on their mission. The biggest challenge that companies have once they reach a certain size is to stay focused… I think this is our superpower, that we know how to balance the small things with the big wins and the big disruptions that come to our business.’