40% of the Internet is controlled by this man, and it's a problem
In the early 2000s, a 19-year-old developer named Matt Mullenweg cloned a CMS called b2/cafelog to include functionality he thought was missing.
By October 2009, the project, going by the name of WordPress, has become the most popular open-source CMS on the Internet, presently powering around 810 million websites worldwide, or 40% of the Internet.
About everyone, from the NYT to Neil Patel, utilizes WordPress for their blog, e-com store, company website, portfolio, and more.
Free, light, and wonderful for SEO, easy to use, WordPress is also open-source, which means that anybody can copy, contribute to, and alter it as they desire.
Until they couldn’t.
In September 2024, Mullenweg complained that the WordPress hosting firm WP Engine was a cancer to WordPress due to their scant commitment to the open-source project and their appropriation of the WordPress trademark.
A few days later, WP Engine delivered a cease and desist letter to Mullenweg requesting he stop making these comments.
In retribution, Mullenweg disabled WP Engine from WordPress, and their customers could no longer update their website.
A few weeks later, Mullenweg stole a WP Engine-made plugin called ACF through the dubious use of a provision indicating that the owner of WordPress (a business called Automattic, owned and developed by Mullenweg) might do so if the plugin represented a risk to the community.
Matt Mullenweg’s war against WP Engine has since known no limits and continues to unfold in the courts.
This led to a variety of ethical and practical concerns that the open-source community had managed to sidestep up until now.
To put it simply, there will be a pre- and post-Mullenweg VS WP Engine phase.
There’s a concept in the open-source community known as benevolent dictator for life, which characterizes a developer’s readiness to give his work for free while retaining exclusive rights and control over it, but whose actions must be directed toward aiding the community.
The principle has been working well up until now.
WordPress runs over 810 million websites, but its existence rests solely in the hands of Mullenweg.
Too much power for one man? Without a doubt, sure.
Second, there’s a potential for conflicts of interest. Despite being free, Matt Mullenweg earned billions on WordPress.
He runs Automattic, which owns WordPress.com and Pressable (two hosting firms for WordPress), the popular WordPress plugin Jetpack, WooCommerce, and a ton of other stuff.
By assaulting WP Engine, Mullenweg tackles a direct competitor of Automattic, which earns half a billion dollars each year thanks to WordPress.
Third, nobody knows why Matt Mullenweg went this far.
Many renowned people in the open-source world, like David Heinemeir Hanson, have encouraged Mullenweg to de-escalate and speak instead of seeking the bankruptcy of WP Engine.
In response, Matt penned a letter full of insults, ridiculing DHH for its failure to profit on all of the fantastic open-source items he produced.
Which takes us to the fourth point: what does Mullenweg want?
He’s the owner and CEO of a company that makes $500 million a year and established one of the most successful ventures on the web.
His activities for the past three months have prompted many to question.
The Internet changed when Mullenweg cut access to WP Engine.
Everyone who owned a WordPress blog understood that their website did not belong to them as much as they assumed—especially if they hosted it with the latter.
This has not just severely fragilized WordPress but the fundamental concept of open-source software.
No one knows how this dispute will finish, but it’s apparent that the reputation and image around the WordPress project have greatly harmed lately.
I don’t want to defend WP Engine, but Matt Mullenweg’s actions were grossly disproportionate in respect to the crimes he accused WP Engine of committing.
My expectation is that we’ll soon see a fork of WordPress for people who will seek to disassociate the project from Mullenweg.
I don’t wish it, but it seems hardly inescapable at this time.
Maybe the worst aspect is that WordPress, despite its age and the amount of individuals who contributed to it, is a lousy product.
It’s slow, buggy, and useless if you don’t use it with plugins. The same may be stated about other Automattic projects.
WooCommerce is more than thirteen years old and still does not have any native field for product variation despite the need for Google Shopping.
Jetpack is essentially a fraud plugin that slows down your website, and WordPress.com has blacklisted numerous users for no reason and is excessively pricey for what it is.
Mullenweg should focus on developing his software instead of trashing the efforts of other people…
…unless he actually did go nuts, in which case a few million individuals may soon have to find a new home for their website.