Thanks all, it's been a fun time so far, lots and lots to do to take Mibbit mainstream, but it's really nice to know I don't have to shell out more money for bandwidth.

The bandwidth usage before I did work on optimization was around 3TB transfer a month, which can cost.

BTW Thanks everyone on HN, especially those who contributed to my first post about Mibbit. It was harsh, and afterwards I almost gave up on the idea, but sometimes you need that kick.

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=83660

It's actually quite nice being a lone founder... nothing that makes you more determined to succeed than being the underdog.

The other interesting stat I forgot to mention, is that Mibbit has about 3-4 times as many users online as Meebo Rooms at any point. I'm quite pleased about that, lots of room for growth though.

Good luck! I was in your position a couple of years ago. It eventually wore me down a bit being a lone shark, but there is definitely a high period :)

BTW, bandwidth shouldn't be expensive ($100 a terabyte is reasonable in the continental US) - it should be your time that's the biggest draw.

So right now, the only revenue comes from adsense, right?

Judging by his stats, the website is still very small, hopefully for him, it will continue to grow. Congrats!

It's quantified BTW if you're interested in traffic/users etc

http://www.quantcast.com/mibbit.com

These things are all relative of course, so it's big compared to lots of websites, small compared to the others :/

I'm curious here, too. I didn't dig in too deeply, but I see exactly 1 ad unit at the top of the home page, no premium features for sale, etc.

I'd be interested in stats on ad units and CTR (which I've always heard is really low on communication apps).

edit: Would also be interested in definition of profitability... Covering hardware/software costs? Covering costs PLUS able to eat ramen? Covering costs plus paying yourself a market salary?

Most of the advertising comes from contextual advertising once in the chat. Also with the widget that other websites use.

The advertising revenue isn't massive yet, ($4 figures/month), but it's something to build on.

There's also obviously people willing to pay for chat/communication - campfire, liveperson type services.

This is awesome - congrats axod. More companies/startups should take pride in profitability [and tell HN about it dammit! :) ].

Enjoy the reverse burn rate & positive cash flow in 2009.

my favourite posts are when HN startups post back saying how fantastically they're doing - well done, its a real achievement, ESPECIALLY in this climate.

axod: Congrats! :)

the rest: why not use mibbit or any other IRC client for #startups on freenode?

Always have, the only easy web IRC client I could find :)

Congrats. I've enjoyed hearing about your progress over the past year.

very cool, i love mibbit :) we just set up an exception on our IRC server so that it doesn't trigger the max clients limit.

Very nice, profitable boot strapped startup.

Congrats axod! Can't wait to see where you're going to take mibbit in 2009.

So the money is from advertising? May be needless to say but it isn't clear.

Wow, kick ass. Now I don't need to worry about downloading an IRC client when I'm programming in the library and need to troubleshoot. Kick ass.

well if you are in emacs you could just start up erc...

is this a web frontend to bitlbee? looks very similar in functionlity.