"Buffer" breaks down the breakdown of sales to explain the profit amount etc. What is amazing information disclosure

We provide useful services for the use of SNS and marketing "BufferIt is known to focus on the transparency of information. Such Buffer decomposes in detail the sales amount of the company, cost structure, profit margin etc in detail, publishes it on the blog, exposing the part which can be said to be the most delicate in business operation of the company.

Transparent Pricing: What Your Money Goes Toward With Buffer
https://open.bufferapp.com/transparent-pricing-buffer/

◆ What is Buffer and its business model?
Buffer is a company based in San Francisco, USA, including Facebook, Twitter, Google +, LinkedIn,App.netWe provide web service "Buffer" which enables you to post bulk posting by specifying the date and time for SNS like SNS. A user with each SNS account creates an account in Buffer and posts it by making Buffer and each SNS cooperate.

The actual usage image is as follows. It shows how to make entries of the same contents for Facebook and Twitter, set the date and time, and reserve posting.


Furthermore, it can analyze RT number of contents posted via Buffer, number of "favorites", number of clicks etcAnalyticsFunction is provided, and it is a service that can be utilized for marketing using SNS.

Although all the basic functions of Buffer can be used for free, there are many reservation frames of posts, and the number of accounts to be linked increases. Paid plan "Awesome plan: 10 dollars a month (about 1200 yen) "and"Business plan: From 50 dollars a month (from about 6000 yen) "is also prepared, this usage fee is the source of sales of Buffer.

◆ Advancing the opening of information Buffer
Although Buffer develops a new service unique to the Internet age, its thought is also advanced. Buffer has shown aggressive efforts to open information for a long time ago, and in December 2013 we publish the salary of all staff including CEO on blog.

Open Salaries at Buffer: Our Transparent Formula and All Our Salaries


In Buffer,Annual revenue detailsAndStakeholding ratio per staffSuch as publishing it on a blog, clearly making an offensive attitude to disclose information that was not thought much with conventional common sense. In an example similar to this, JapaneseUNIQLO(FAST RETAILING)Public annual salary release table releasedThere are many people who have heard the case that they did.

Such Buffer reference made it to the apparel mail order siteEverlaneThe efforts being done. The following image captures the product page of Everlane, but among them the very characteristic information is stated.

The Slim Fit Oxford - Smoke (Best Seller) - Everlane


In the lower part of the page, prices are listed in such a way that the cost of goods based on various expenses such as material cost, manufacturing cost and transportation cost of each product is stated and furthermore the profits obtained by the company are known. Everlane is a major feature of providing information that could not be thought with conventional common sense and making price setting very transparent.


In Buffer, we are now going to disclose information about the company 's services under the influence of such Everlane' s efforts. Infograph created by categorizing "Awesome plan" of 10 dollars a month (about 1200 yen) according to cost has been created.

The graphic below is the graphic, but the employee's salary is $ 6.56 (about 770 yen), the cultural activity fee is $ 0.92 (about 110 yen) out of the $ 10 service fee (about 1200 yen), use of various tools Information such as 0.98 dollar (about 120 yen) that shows the inside of the hand is displayed, which is very interesting for general users as well as rival companies.


In addition, the table created by putting the actual amount is here. At the bottomTotal"Is displayedSales per month 340,122 dollars 56 cents (about 39 ten thousand yen)The entity of cost and profit to the company is clarified.


In the blog, details are also described for each item further.

◆ Labor costs: $ 6.56 out of $ 10 (6.56% of the total)
Here is a graph showing the personnel expenses that are the highest proportion of cost for each staff. He is co-founder and CEO of BufferJoe GascoyneHe is getting a salary of about 15,000 dollars (about 1.75 million yen), and it seems that even the staff with the smallest amount is an excellent pay system of about 6000 dollars (about 720,000 yen). The average monthly amount of personnel expenses is approximately$ 234,000 (about 27.4 million yen)It has become.


Graph showing distribution of salary by field of staff. It seems that it can be said that the salary amount of staff on Product (product) is prominent is characteristic of web service company.


◆ Server Hosting Cost: $ 0.67 (6.7% of the total)
Buffer's service is provided by AmazonAmazon Web Services(AWS) is hosted by. Among them, the following services are used especially.

· Elastic Beanstalk
· EC 2
· SQS
· Redshift
· Elastic Map Reduce
Route 53
· S3

Also, to operate the databaseCompose.ioWe are using the service of. The average monthly fee paid to both parties is approximately$ 22,890 (about 2.7 million yen)And the amount paid to each is as follows.

· AWS: $ 1740 (about 1.25 million yen)
· Compose.io: 14,486 dollars (about 1.58 million yen)

◆ Benefits / Cultural activities: $ 0.56 (5.6% of the total)
Buffer holds an event dedicated to training at a frequency of once every five months, and Buffer says that all costs are incurred at that time. In the example below, an example of the cost of holding an event in New York is described, but you can see how Buffer burdened the cost of a total of $ 113,500 (about 13.3 million yen).


The sum of the other event costs and rebuilding the monthly fee amounts to about 15,575 dollars (about 1.85 million yen), accounting for 88.5% of welfare welfare and cultural activity expenses. In addition to this, Amazon Kindle which is paid to all staff in this item, and monthly average of 400 dollars (about 48,000 yen) as purchase price of e-book purchase, Life log wrist band payable to each staffJAWBONEThe total cost per month is approximately$ 19,182 (about 2.25 million yen)It has become.

◆ Operating expenses (legal and accounting): $ 0.36 (3.6% of the total)
The cost for operating the enterprise is about per month$ 12,519 (about 1.45 million yen)It has become.

· Accounting · salary payment · expenses · financial related
Consulting companyForesight, And on average paid a fee of 3428 dollars (about 400,000 yen) per month. Regarding this, Buffer is "very satisfied, satisfied with full-time employees doing work for 2-3 people"

· Legal affairs
Wilson SonsiniAnd paid a monthly charge of $ 2455 (about 280,000 yen).

· Health health · Work related accident compensation related
Buffer buffers the whole amount by subscribing to all health staff for all staff. That cost is $ 6635 per month (about 780,000 yen).

◆ Fee Collection Fee: $ 0.41 (4.1% of the total)
Web settlement system for settlement from usersStripeAs a fee for introducing$ 13,885 (about 1.63 million yen)I am paid.
The usual Stripe fee is 2.9% of settlement amount + 30 cents, but Buffer seems to have set a special rate of 2.2% + 30 cents with a special discount applied. Stripe's service can be seen in detail in the following article.

"Stripe" which helps to maximize revenue by introducing payment system on website with easy steps - GIGAZINE


Office cost: $ 0.36 (3.6% of the total)
As for office-related expenses, Buffer is about per month$ 12,166 (about 1.4 million yen)Expenditure. Buffer introduces a distributed work style to each staff 's work situation, and there seems to be a situation that can not be solved at once by a simple "office expenses".

· San Francisco office
The San Francisco office that is the headquarters of Buffer has turned into a state-of-the-art office town in the old warehouse townSoMa AreaIt is located at about 7,175 dollars (about 840,000 yen). There are only 6 staff in San Francisco, and there are about 2 or 3 staff working in the office.

· Computers and related equipment
In Buffer, notebook PCs are paid to all staff, peripheral equipment such as keyboard and mobile terminals for testing are also burdened with expenses. About $ 2,578 per month (about 300,000 yen).

· Office Supplies · Buffer Supporters Costs
It is about 1120 dollars (about 130,000 yen), such as expenses of office supplies and the cost of handwritten "Thank You Card" to be sent to Buffer supporter who participated in Twitter chat event held by Buffer. From the userVoice of pleasureSince it is being sent, it seems to be said to use proper cost.


· Internet expenses
For the staff who uses the home as an office, Buffer bears burden of net connection expenses. Payment of about 1293 dollars (about 150,000 yen) per month. These costs constitute the cost of office administration burdened by Buffer.

◆ Advertising and marketing costs: $ 0.18 (1.8% of the total)
Buffer does not seem to spend much money on advertisement and marketing, and its size is about to be repaired on a monthly basis$ 6300 (about 740,000 yen). In the beginning of 2014 it seems that some advertising campaigns were carried out on Google Ads, Facebook, Twitter etc, but it was said that it is currently shrinking because it did not get the aimed effect.

◆ Tools: $ 0.42 (4.2% of the total)
Buffer uses a number of tools and subscription type services to improve service and improve user experience, and as of October 2014, it pays fees for 33 types of tools in Buffer .

The ratio of expenses to tools etc. is like this. As you can see, it seems that the most cost is directed to the technical part (Tech) of the light blue part.


The expenses for these tools are per month$ 5200 (about 610,000 yen). Within the blog entry, the followingNew RelicYaMortarAs the names of various services are listed mainly, those who are interestedCheck the pageThen it may be helpful.


Buffer profit: $ 0.46 (4.6% of the total)
And perhaps the most interesting profit margin is 4.6%, the average profit per month is$ 15,667 (about 1.88 million yen)It has become. This is a figure of only 46 cents (about 54 yen) out of the ten dollars (about 1200 yen) of the "Awesome plan" usage fee. Although it is a margin which is felt unexpectedly low, Buffer offers services to users at a reasonable price, providing sustainable (sustainable) services for both parties, and to shareholders and investors Is also a result for the purpose of providing appropriate profits.


It is a Buffer that creates a highly transparent system, but it seems to be said that it will be an interesting case whether such efforts will lead to business success.