Disqus is an online

Web application

A web application is an application that is accessed over a network such as the Internet or an intranet. The term may also mean a computer software application that is coded in a browser-supported language and reliant on a common web browser to render the application executable.Web applications are...

 discussion and commenting service for websites and online communities

Online community

An online community is a virtual community that exists online and whose members enable its existence through taking part in membership ritual. An online community can take the form of an information system where anyone can post content, such as a Bulletin board system or one where only a restricted...

 that uses a networked platform. The company’s platform includes various features, such as social integration, social networking, user profiles, spam and moderation

Moderation system

On Internet websites which invite users to post comments, a moderation system is the method the webmaster chooses to sort contributions which are irrelevant, obscene, illegal, or insulting with regards to useful or informative contributions....

 tools, analytics, email notifications, and mobile commenting. It was founded in 2007 by Daniel Ha and Jason Yan as a Y Combinator startup

Startup company

A startup company or startup is a company with a limited operating history. These companies, generally newly created, are in a phase of development and research for markets...

.

Disqus ranks #1 in Quantcast's U.S. networks with 144 million monthly unique U.S. visits. Disqus is featured on many major publications, such as Engadget

Engadget

Engadget is a multilingual technology blog network with daily coverage of gadgets and consumer electronics. Though on appearance Engadget functions much like a blog and may be defined as such, much of its editorial content takes the form of an online magazine...

, CNN

CNN

Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...

, Fox News, Daily Telegraph and IGN

IGN

IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...

 and about 750,000 blogs and websites.

History

Disqus was first developed in the summer of 2007 as a Y Combinator startup headed by Daniel Ha and Jason Yan, both of whom were undergraduates at University of California, Davis

University of California, Davis

The University of California, Davis is a public teaching and research university established in 1905 and located in Davis, California, USA. Spanning over , the campus is the largest within the University of California system and third largest by enrollment...

. Disqus was first incorporated and launched on October 30, 2007.

Financing

In early 2011, Disqus raised $10 million in funding from North Bridge Venture Partners and Union Square Venture Partners.

Growth

In November 2010, shortly after celebrating its third anniversary, Disqus announced hitting 200 million unique visitors/month. Seven months later in May 2011, Disqus announced approaching 500 million unique visitors/month, in addition to consistent 500% traffic, user, and community growth for the previous year, bringing its total counts to about 750,000 websites and 50 million registered users

According to a March 2011 study by Lijit, Disqus is used by 75% of websites who use a third party commenting or discussion system.

Technology

The Disqus comment widget

Web widget

In computing a web widget is a software widget for the web. It's a small application that can be installed and executed within a web page by an end user. They are derived from the idea of code reuse. Other terms used to describe web widgets include: portlet, gadget, badge, module, webjit, capsule,...

 is written in JavaScript

JavaScript

JavaScript is a prototype-based scripting language that is dynamic, weakly typed and has first-class functions. It is a multi-paradigm language, supporting object-oriented, imperative, and functional programming styles....

 and is powered by a back end primarily written in Django.

Business model

Disqus operates on the freemium

Freemium

Freemium is a business model that works by offering a product or service free of charge while charging a premium for advanced features, functionality, or related products and services...

 financial model, similar to Dropbox and Evernote

EverNote

Evernote is a suite of software and services designed for notetaking and archiving. A "note" can be a piece of formatted text, a full webpage or webpage excerpt, a photograph, a voice memo, or a handwritten "ink" note. Notes can also have file attachments...

. The service is free to use for both commenters and websites.

Starting in November 2010 Disqus began officially offering three add-on packages for websites: Plus for $19/month, Pro for $199/month, and VIP starting at $999/month. In mid-2011, the Plus package was removed and Pro was increased to $299/month.

Language support

Both the Disqus website and comment system are translated in over 60 languages.

Browser support

Disqus works in all major web browsers, including Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and Opera. On mobile devices, Disqus currently only supports browsers using the WebKit

WebKit

WebKit is a layout engine designed to allow web browsers to render web pages. WebKit powers Google Chrome and Apple Safari and by October 2011 held over 33% of the browser market share between them. It is also used as the basis for the experimental browser included with the Amazon Kindle ebook...

layout engine.