March 27, 2006
big web 2.0 story
Newsweek cover story: “A new wave of start-ups are cashing in on the next stage of the Internet. And this time, it’s all about… you.”
Flickr was a good business, too, as many users chose to pay the $25-a-year fee for unlimited photo storage and relief from advertising on the site. But that’s not why Yahoo bought it for an estimated $35 million. “With less than 10 people on the payroll, they had millions of users generating content, millions of users organizing that content for them, tens of thousands of users distributing that across the Internet, and thousands of people not on the payroll actually building the thing,” says Yahoo exec Bradley Horowitz. “That’s a neat trick. If we could do that same thing with Yahoo, and take our half-billion user base and achieve the same kind of effect, we knew we were on to something.”
Serious Revenue Community yahoo
Newsweek cover story: “A new wave of start-ups are cashing in on the next stage of the Internet. And this time, it’s all about… you … photo storage and relief from advertising on the site. But that’s not why Yahoo bought … Yahoo exec Bradley Horo…
It would be fantastic if Yahoo could realize the potential of their users and actually give us access to everything Yahoo! and allow us to develop around it. They’ve done a decent job getting some of their initial APIs out the door but what the heck is taking so long for things like Y! Calendar and Y! Address Book. Those are APIs I would love to see but to date have not.
Microbrands Create Value “With” their Customers
The Newsweek cover story is “The New Wizdom For The Web” talks about why Yahoo! would spend 30+ million on a company that only had 10 people on the payroll:
Flickr was a good business, too, as many users chose to pay the $25-a-year fee fo…
I can’t understand why people don’t set up their own websites. Registering a domain name is fairly cheap and you can pay as little as $50US per year for server space including a couple of GB and tons of bandwith. Then you can put whatever you want on there and make money out of it yourself.
Tim, not everyone wants the hassle.
It only costs $50/year if you value your time at $0/hour. (Or if, like me, you geek out on this stuff and would do it anyway.)
So you could hire someone, or go into business with someone (a la Tom/Hugh), or do a bunch of work yourself, or or or…
…but for most people the Web is not a business proposition, and they don’t want to dick around with the HTML and the PleskMobile and all that.
Ever used MySpace? Some of the worst coding *ever* (just starting with the HTML), an aesthetic pit of doom, but zillions of people use it. Easy to use (or to suffer through) and you get your stuff out fast to people you want to have see it.
How about Blogspot? 90% spamblogs but tons of people still use it because it’s very easy to use. There are plenty more examples, Flickr being in my opinion one of the very best.
Anyway, I admire Yahoo for talking the talk, and I hope they actually do find a way to be as open and agile as they’d probably like to be. But after seeing the bludgeoning they gave Oddpost, and seeing them actually proud of it, I’m not holding my breath.
(Oddpost was a super cool webmail company, Yahoo bought them, spent a bunch of money and a bunch of time, released a theoretically Oddpost-based Yahoo mail which Sucked Ass, and then IIRC compared their “accomplishment” to winning WW2 or some equally outrageous thing.)
Wait, Yahoo! didn’t win WW2?
Create Your Own Web 2.0 Company
Everyone’s cashing in on it already, and you should too.
Want to be the next Flickr, MySpace, Craigslist, YouTube, or del.icio.us ?
Here’s how*:
1. Dream up a Web 2.0 product/service
2. Give it a cool name
3. Add a catchy catchphrase [or a tack…