Akamai stock is worth $11B today. Two weeks ago, it was worth $8B. Industry analyst estimate that Akamai owns about 60% to 80% of the CDN market share based on sales. However, if you base market share on the penetration of the Fortune 1000, and Alexa 100 accounts, Akamai has 90% market share, based on my sample size test of trace routes. This success wasn’t built overnight, it took 14 years of hard work, dedication, and risk taking to get there. The numbers speak for themselves.
Akamai in 2013
- Annual Revenues was $1.57B, up 15% year-over-year
- 140,000 servers in 87 countries running on 1200 networks
- Employees: 3400
- 90% of the world Internet users are 1 hop away from the Akamai network
- Akamai pushes about 10Tbps on any given day
- Akamai pushes 21Tbps at peak
- Akamai counts 90% of the Fortune 1000 and Alexa 100 as customers
Akamai in 1999
- Annual Revenues were $3.9M
- Net Loss was $57M
- 227 customers in total
- 464 full time employees
- R&D Team had 200 employees
- Apple represent 22% of Akamai’s sales
- Yahoo represented 13% of Akamai’s sales
- 3000 servers in 45 countries
- Connected to 150 networks
- Stock price above $300 per share
Akamai has come a long way in the last 14 years, from generating $3.9M in sales on 3,000 servers in 1999, to generating $1.57B on 140,000 servers in 2013. It’s a great American Story of how persistence, hard work, and dedication yields incredible results. Today’s Internet companies reach astronomical valuations in 4 years or less; others like Akamai and Cisco, worked their tails off over a decade to get where they are today. Lesson for any entrepreneur interested in starting a CDN, plan on working hard for the next 7 years to make it in this market; there is no such thing as a get rich quick scheme in this space.
