We initiated a position in Wix.com Ltd. (WIX, Financial) during the quarter. Wix is the global leader in the do-it-yourself website building market, with 100 million registered users and 2.5 million premium subscribers. In addition to website building, Wix provides micro-businesses with tools to run their businesses, including marketing, scheduling and relationship management, among others, while charging them only about $13 a month on average. Wix’s growth is driven by extending its horizontal and vertical features as well as increasing the number of targeted verticals, such as hotels, restaurants, e-commerce and photographers. As highlighted above, Wix’s product innovation drives increasing conversion rates and enables Wix to increase its wallet share. The source of Wix’s competitive edge is its brand name and marketing reach along with its technological lead resulting in faster iteration with first-to-market features and vertical offerings. Wix’s subscription business model yields strong cohort economics, creating a predictable and a profitable business model (acquire a cohort once, get subscriptions forever). We believe Wix has major upside as it continues to innovate and convert an increasing number of businesses to premium subscribers.
From the Baron Opportunity Fund first quarter 2017 shareholder letter.
