Code is a highly valuable industry in the modern world. Not everyone can code, and those who can are considered to be highly talented in their field. Locations to share code are everywhere online, though there are plenty of differences in their quality.
GitHub has earned the distinction of being the most popular out of all the sites offering code hosting services. The site is self-described as "social coding", implementing a semi-social network in order to streamline work and cooperation among coders working on software. The primary strength for coders comes from the support for many different types of code that can be stored.
Code is maintained in repositories on the service, and you can claim a free repository for your open-source project. If you"re working on a closed source project you aren"t so lucky though, with the site charging for the right to host. It must work though since Microsoft, Facebook and Twitter all hold repositories for their code development.
GitHub has achieved an enormous amount in just four years, and it has done so without any funding from outside investors. This is set to change though, with the service having gained a cool $100 million in outside investment thanks to venture start-up Andreessen Horowitz.
Andreessen Horowitz was founded by Marc Andreessen, and his start-up was chosen to fund GitHub because of the GitHub team liking his approach to his work. According to the team, they feel Andreessen Horowitz has a commitment to approaching things differently to the vast majority of companies offering similar services. This ties in with their intent to approach their business differently to their competitors.
Their official blog post on the topic paints a very optimistic future for the company, but it isn"t hard to be optimistic when you"ve received so much funding initially. Their blog post doesn"t explain their intentions outright, but gives a basic idea of where you can expect GitHub to go.
Fundamentally the company will focus on its current position, though it aims to simplify things for newer users, as well as adding more advanced features for experienced coders and software developers. For those interested in the development process of software - or developers themselves - the changes should make for an exciting future for GitHub.
Source: GitHub Blog