TopCoder Celebrates 400,000 Members as Payments Top $36 Million

GLASTONBURY, Conn., April 2, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- TopCoder®, Inc., the world's largest Open Innovation Community of digital creators, today announced that it has reached a major milestone as the TopCoder and TopCoder Studio global Community of registered members officially surpassed the 400,000 mark. The Community is comprised of professionals and students with expertise and interest in a wide variety of fields including analytics and algorithms, computer science, physics, mathematics, medicine, graphic arts, design and many others. In the 11 years since the company's inception, TopCoder has awarded more than $36 million in member payments to the Community for projects ranging in scale from full enterprise systems to conceptualization contests and marathon algorithm optimization matches as well as simple bug races and related work – all delivered by some of the best content authors, independent programmers and creatives from around the globe.

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"TopCoder members participate for all sorts of reasons – to learn, to hone their skills, to be recognized in their search for employment, to make money, to stretch their creativity, to socialize and many take part just for the plain old fun of an interesting intellectual challenge – I am amazed by both the TopCoder staff and Community and humbled by the continued growth we see in all of these areas," said Jack Hughes, founder and chairman of TopCoder, Inc.

"We are extremely excited to have hit this point and believe we have much further to go.  TopCoder represents what we believe to be the leading edge of how organizational structures will change to meet the demands of the 21st century, combining professional, social and commercial aspects into one creative community. We are extremely gratified that our members are not just part of our decision making processes, but are themselves the architects and builders of this new model.  The model of Open Innovation and creativity exemplified by the TopCoder Community is the way forward for organizations and individuals of all types to reach beyond traditional boundaries and limitations."

Since TopCoder's start in 2001, Community members have competed in tens of thousands of competitions of both commercial and non-commercial nature on the TopCoder platform. During that same time, thousands of software components and graphics and millions of  lines of code have been developed for a growing list of more than 200 corporate and government clients. Current work by members includes projects in the fields of medicine, space exploration, security systems, agribusiness, genome sequencing and business solutions for the Fortune 100 as well as algorithmic enhancements for NASA, diverse government agencies and a CS-STEM educational platform developed with DARPA for enticing students through the use of games to learn and enjoy computer science concepts. TopCoder members have built the largest and most sophisticated community and engagement platform available and are now, with the guidance and support of the TopCoder staff, the single source for all platform changes, extensions and enhancements as well as Community initiatives. 

TopCoder Member Payment Highlights

• Over $36 million in total payments to date and accelerating- most of that amount during the last five years;
• A growing list of an elite group of members who annually earn in the six figure range and relatively high amounts in their own home countries and geographies;
• The recently launched NoNamesite Community, built by the TopCoder Community, has just passed 1500 student members.

About TopCoder, Inc.

TopCoder is the world's largest competitive Open Innovation Community of digital creators with over 400,000 members representing algorithmists, software developers and creative artists from over 200 countries. The TopCoder Community creates digital assets including analytics, software and creative designs and solutions for a wide-ranging client base through a competitive, rigorous, standards based methodology. Combined with our extremely talented Community this groundbreaking methodology results in superior outcomes for our clients. For more information about sponsoring TopCoder events and utilizing TopCoder's software services and platforms, visit www.topcoder.com.

TopCoder is a registered trademark of TopCoder, Inc. in the United States and other countries. All other product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Available Topic Expert(s): For information on the listed expert(s), click appropriate link.
Jack Hughes
https://profnet.prnewswire.com/Subscriber/ExpertProfile.aspx?ei=85416

Jim McKeown
TopCoder, Inc.
860.633.5540
[email protected]

SOURCE TopCoder, Inc.