A lot of the recent news around Web 2.0 is starting to frighten me. There is just too much money flying around with too much hype and too little value. Take the Web 2.0 conference for example. This thing was way over hyped. It was fun and all but worth $2800? I don’t think so. Mostly suits from my vantage point.
Heck for $2800 you can buy two database servers for your website.
Case in point is this great post over on Silicon Beat:
Silicon Valley venture firm Sequoia Capital backs YouTube … has invested $5 million, and now values the company at $20 million.
YouTube is cool. Great product. I’m sure someday they will be worth $20 million just not today. How long have these guys been around? How much do you think it would cost to outsource a clone of YouTube? Less than $20 million I’m sure.
Inform is a new startup about to launch:
We too bumped into Inform CEO Neal Goldman at Web 2.0, and he was obviously excited about it. It already has 55 employees, which astonished us
Fifty five employes!? This has to be a typo. Five employees would be way overkill for most useful Web 2.0 products.
I love Web 2.0. I think there’s a lot of innovation ahead. I just don’t want to see a repeat of the last .bomb where the market was hyped only to implode later.
The root of the issue from my vantage point is tech reliance on Venture Capital. The VC have too much incentive to hype their portfolio so that they can sell it to a BigCo or exit with an IPO. This isn’t good for your company, isn’t good for consumers, and isn’t good for the long term health of the tech industry.
Call me crazy but I just want to build a viable company with a real product solving a real consumer need.
At least we’ll get some free sushi out of the deal. I just hope the industry doesn’t get food poisoning.
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Trackback on Oct 12th, 2005 at 7:51 am
Are people getting tired of Web 2.0?
Is it me or am I picking up on a change in how people are reacting to Web 2.0, especially now venture capitalists are on board?
A quote by Ben Barren that I really like is this one where he describes it as an:
em… -
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Trackback on Oct 12th, 2005 at 8:24 am
Blogoposium 2 – Lessons Learned from Web 1.0
The one thing we have learned from history is that we dont learn from history.
- Winston Churchill
Last week, I voiced some of my concerns about Web 2.0 in a post entitled The Great Web and Web 2.0. Essentially, it spoke to the … -
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Trackback on Oct 12th, 2005 at 1:03 pm
Bomb, Schmomb…
I’ve noticed in the past month or so that people are starting to get scared that we’re entering a new tech bubble named Web 2.0. Everything has been heating up in the past couple of weeks with the Web 2.0
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October 12, 2005 at 1:11 am
I could’nt agree more
55 people to build this web site : http://inform.com/ what have they been smoking, not even a registration form!!
PS great blog.
regards
Al
October 12, 2005 at 3:04 am
A couple of days programming changes at Google Video, and Youtube (who thinks of these names), would be forgotten forever.
Take a look at SmugMug, same sort of princple but with photos and it way better than this, and theres only a few programmers there.
October 12, 2005 at 7:17 am
Kevin,
I couldn’t agree with you more about VC funding, despite what I said in our latest podcast. I think funding is ok if you need to put together a 4man team and still put food on the table, but I am talking minimal amounts of money… None of this $5mil sillyness.
I also think this is what Jason of 37signals was getting at in his Top 10 things that aren’t web 2.0 post (http://37signals.com/svn/archives2/the_top_10_things_that_arent_web_20.php)
This is some thin ice people are skating on!
October 12, 2005 at 8:38 am
If they’re employing 55 people, they’re going to crash and burn. Three people is enough for most startups – I sure hope that’s a typo on their part.
November 23, 2005 at 8:01 pm
I share the same concern about “Web 2.0″ but I think it’s safer because 5 years is still fresh in people mind.