A deep retrospective on Evernote’s development history: Why did it start early but arrive late?

For Evernote, restructuring its freemium product was long overdue—and urgently needed. Yet for Evernote users, this move felt like a slap in the face: not only were free-tier features weakened, but free users’ usage was severely restricted—and many bugs still plaguing the paid version remained unfixed. To be fair, the company had little choice but to raise prices. For years, Evernote’s exceptionally ‘generous’ freemium model had spoiled users accustomed to using Evernote for free—and undermined the company’s revenue growth. What the company should have done—while staying aligned with users—was gradually introduce usage-limiting incentives into its free tier over time, rather than abruptly shifting from a generous freemium offering to a comparatively expensive paid service. Pricing changes are among the most impactful actions a company can take. Yet one of the largest—and most unpopular—changes in Evernote’s recent adjustments wasn’t its new pricing structure at all. Its main competitors—Microsoft’s OneNote and Apple’s Notes—lack Evernote’s feature richness, yet they offer significantly more functionality for free—making Evernote’s new pricing even less appealing. Under O’Neill’s leadership, Evernote’s next major shift occurred several months after the pricing adjustment. At that time, the company announced it would migrate from its own proprietary data infrastructure to Google Cloud—a decision of no small consequence. At the time, Evernote served 200 million users and stored roughly 3.5 million GB of data. It could have opted for Amazon Web Services (AWS) or Microsoft Azure instead. According to reports, Evernote chose Google as its cloud provider due to the potential applications of Google’s machine learning technologies. Though costly and labor-intensive, this migration may be viewed as another small step toward transforming Evernote into the kind of company Stepan Pchelintsev envisioned years earlier. Long before this, rumors circulated that Evernote planned to develop voice recognition and translation capabilities—making information access easier. For Evernote, Google Cloud’s machine learning engines represented an ideal fit. Data security has been a thorny issue for Evernote for some time. In 2013, approximately 50 million user accounts were compromised in a security breach. Evernote’s decision to migrate its data infrastructure to Google Cloud was therefore a prudent one—for a company handling such massive volumes of data and users. Yet the company suffered another public relations scandal when TechCrunch reported that its new privacy policy permitted Evernote employees to read users’ private notes. "The latest update to our privacy policy allows certain Evernote employees to supervise the machine learning technologies applied to account content."

Russia’s central power ‘second generation’

Putin’s niece, Zivileva, moderated a panel discussion on developing the market for adaptive clothing for people with disabilities. This time, her official role was founder of the clothing brand ‘On the Wings.’ She spoke emotionally, stating that her clothing brand is not aimed solely at people with disabilities or disabled veterans—but seeks to build a clothing ecosystem ‘in the name of the people, for the people.’ Naturally, numerous representatives of elite ‘second-generation’ figures also participated in the forum. In 2025, Putin’s two daughters—Voronkova and Tkachenko—made their debut appearance at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. Voronkova, Putin’s elder daughter, elaborated on cutting-edge issues in biosafety; Tkachenko, the younger daughter, vividly analyzed the critical importance of technological sovereignty—both domains central to Putin’s national strategic priorities. During interviews at the forum, Voronkova mentioned her favorite book: *Brave New World*, Aldous Huxley’s classic dystopian novel depicting a so-called ‘civilized society’ obsessed with materialism and moral decay—an obvious allegory targeting the West. Beyond Putin’s daughters, the ‘second generations’ of Russia’s ‘Twelve Guardians’ and ‘Ten Golden Vanguards’ also made prominent appearances at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. Ksenia Shoigu—the daughter of Sergei Shoigu (one of the Twelve Guardians), who once served as Putin’s personal tour guide—moderated the sub-forum ‘Global Projects of Russian Sports’ in her capacity as President of Russia’s Triathlon Federation. Roman Rotenberg—the son of Boris Rotenberg (one of the Ten Golden Vanguards)—participated in the roundtable ‘Sports Media: Phenomena and Potential’ as First Vice President of the Russian Ice Hockey Federation. Ice hockey is, in a sense, Russia’s national sport—and one of Putin’s personal favorites. Alexander Vaino—the son of Anton Vaino (one of the Twelve Guardians and Head of the Presidential Administration)—shared insights on stimulating youth innovation as head of Youth Policy at the Agency for Strategic Initiatives. In recent years, the Agency for Strategic Initiatives has grown rapidly, hosting the annual forum ‘Powerful Ideas for a New Era,’ which Putin occasionally attends. Vladimir Kiriyenko—the son of Deputy Chief of Staff Sergey Kiriyenko (Russia’s chief ideologue, responsible for domestic propaganda)—serves as General Director of VK (Russia’s largest social network). Stepan Kovalchuk—the younger son of Vladimir Kovalchuk (one of the Ten Golden Vanguards, a media and financial tycoon)—holds a senior executive position at VK. Both shared perspectives on restricting Western social media platforms and developing domestic alternatives. Kiriyenko oversees Russia’s ideological apparatus and domestic propaganda; following the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war, he spearheaded the ban on Meta and Instagram—and plans to progressively restrict WhatsApp (also under Meta), promoting Russia’s homegrown WeChat-like platform ‘Max.’ The Russian government has mandated that all newly manufactured smartphones pre-install Max—a platform jointly developed by the government and VK, or, in a sense, a collaborative project between Kiriyenko and his son. Stepan is also the founder of RuTube, a video platform designed to replace YouTube. Incidentally, Stepan’s elder brother, Boris Kovalchuk—the eldest son of Vladimir Kovalchuk—was appointed Auditor General of Russia by Putin in 2024. The internationally renowned St. Petersburg Economic Forum has become the most eagerly anticipated social season for elite second-generation figures. As luminaries across industries, they confidently and effortlessly showcased the poise and stature of Russia’s elite heirs. Hence, some Western media outlets jokingly refer to the St. Petersburg Economic Forum as the ‘Kremlin Second-Generation Circle’ or the ‘Princes and Princesses Club.’

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