WordPress.com is a blog web hosting service provider owned by Automattic, and powered by the open source WordPress software. It provides free blog hosting for registered users and is financially supported via paid upgrades, "VIP" services and advertising.The site opened to beta testers on August 8, 2005 and opened to the public on November 21, 2005. It was initially launched as an invitation-only service, although at one stage, accounts were also available to users of the Flock web browser.