????網站測試這項工作本身實在沒什么魅力，然而，一點點細微差別就可能意味著收入相差數百萬美元之巨。

????正因為如此，兩位曾經的谷歌（Google）產品經理——丹?賽若克與皮特?庫門于四年前創建了網站測試公司Optimizely。而就在兩人自立門戶前不久，賽若克曾領導巴拉克?奧巴馬2008年總統大選的分析工作。Optimizely公司于2010年完成了Y Combinator項目，開始吸引到星巴克（Starbucks）和Salesforce.com這樣的客戶，還聲稱Optimizely的增速將超過史上所有的軟件即服務公司——這番宣言相當大膽。

????不過，Optimizely的這個目標并不像大家想象的那么遙不可及。

????Optimizely日前宣布，自2010年創建以來，公司年收入的年同比增長率一直保持在三位數。另外，Optimizely還宣布，它在第二輪融資中獲得了安德森-霍羅維茨（Andreessen Horowitz）、基準資本（Benchmark Capital）和貝恩資本風險投資公司（Bain Capital Ventures）共計5700萬美元的投資。安德森-霍羅維茨公司的斯科特?韋斯將進入Optimizely公司董事會。【Optimizely首輪融資的投資者除了基準資本和貝恩資本之外，還有巴特利風投公司（Battery Ventures）、InterWest Partners、Lowercase Capital以及谷歌創投（Google Ventures）】。Optimizely總共融到了高達8800萬美元的資金，這個數字表明，要么是賽若克和庫門做出來的東西確實有前途，要么就是硅谷的估值太過樂觀。

????“網站測試的商機真的有這么大嗎？的確如此。” 賽若克告訴《財富》雜志（Fortune）。“現在有一個轉變，企業的決策不再圍著老大的觀點轉，而是越來越多的圍著數據轉。”

????Optimizely的競爭對手包括 Adobe (ADBE) Target、谷歌Website Optimizer、Visual Website Optimizer以及Monetate 等。確保Optimizely維持領先地位的是它龐大的用戶群——至今Optimizely在101個國家擁有7000多位客戶，后者都在尋找能幫助自己改善網站設計的數據，以提升網站效率和盈利。賽若克說：“它不僅僅是帶來增量的問題，還要提出假說。”Optimizely的做法是，扭轉企業高管依靠自身、而非專業服務機構來進行網站測試等技術工作的趨勢。

????賽若克說：“絕大多數網站尚都還沒有開始使用網站測試服務。網站優化和A/B測試所創造的價值遠遠高于我們籌得的資金，也遠遠高于我們產品的成本。我們看到客戶的收入攀升。【基于數據的產品決策】將成為主流，不論我們公司是否是最終勝出的那個。”

????Optimizely表示，計劃用增加的資金來開發iOS應用，發展旗下的Optiverse社區留言板以及開發者平臺。賽若克說：“我堅信人機合一的理念。Optimizely的成功取決于用戶的成功。我們為客戶做的事事授之以漁。”但賽若克顯然還有更宏大的計劃。

????賽若克說：“我們希望使世界將數據轉化為行動。”賽若克補充道，他希望建立一家百年企業。那么，網站和移動應用還僅僅只是個開端。（財富中文網）

????譯者：項航

????There isn't anything inherently glamorous about website testing, but minor differences can mean a difference of millions of dollars in revenue.

????That's why former Google (GOOG) product managers Dan Siroker and Pete Koomen foundedOptimizely four years ago, not long after Siroker led the analytics effort for Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign. The young company completed the Y Combinator program in 2010, started picking up clients like Starbucks (SBUX) and Salesforce.com (CRM), and proclaimed that it was "on pace to grow faster than any other SaaS company in history" -- a rather bold statement.

????It's not as far-fetched as you might think.

????The company announced this morning that it has seen triple-digit growth, year over year, in annual revenue since its 2010 launch. To celebrate, it also announced that it had raised $57 million in a Series B funding round from Andreessen Horowitz, Benchmark Capital, and Bain Capital Ventures. Andreessen's Scott Weiss will join its board of directors. (The company's previous round included Benchmark and Bain alongside Battery Ventures, InterWest Partners, Lowercase Capital, and Google Ventures.) That brings the company's total funding to a sizable $88 million, suggesting either that Siroker and Koomen are on to something or that Silicon Valley valuations are, well, optimistic.

????"Is website testing this big [of an opportunity]? The answer is yes," Siroker told Fortune. "It's a shift that's been happening as companies make decisions less around the "hippo" -- highest-paid person's opinion -- and more around data."

????Optimizely competes with Adobe (ADBE) Target, Google Website Optimizer, Visual Website Optimizer, Monetate, and others. Keeping the company at the front of the peloton is its large base of customers -- more than 7,000 in 101 countries to date, all in search of data to help them design their websites in a more efficient (and lucrative) way. "It's not just incremental changes but generating a hypothesis," Siroker said. The company's approach taps into a trend in which business leaders take it upon themselves, rather than look to their technology organization, to perform technical tasks like running website tests.

????"The vast majority of websites are still not doing this," Siroker said. "The value that optimization and A/B testing creates is much much greater than the amount of money we're raising or the cost of our products. We're seeing huge increases in top-line revenue of their business. [The shift to data-based product decisions] is going to happen, whether we're the chosen product or not."

????The company says it plans to use the additional funds to develop its iOS application, its Optiverse community message board, and its developer platform. "I strongly believe this idea of the man-machine merger," Siroker said. "Optimizely is only as successful as the person using it. We teach our customers how to fish." But Siroker clearly has bigger plans.

????"We want to enable the world to turn data into action," he said, adding that he wants to build a company that lasts "maybe 100 years." Websites and mobile applications, then, are just the beginning.