The guy next to me in the coffee shop is very loudly planning a photo-sharing site that is going to turn him and his phone buddy into millionaires. Their business plan includes surfing around SmugMug and saying “Yeah, I like this feature. We should have it.” So far, their site will include “tagging” and “sharing.” Look out world; this is going to be big!
Update: Their site is also going to be “fun” and “easy to use.” This is looking pretty sweet.
I’ve recently been fending off a friend of mine with a similar “website idea”. I think what these fellows don’t realize is that the online community is unlike their local community in one simple way: a physical business model can be repeated in different locales without a copy immediately competing with the original, whereas online there truly is only one locale and a web business has to actually improve on previous models if they have a prayer of stealing away customers to their own service. Look at mag.gnolia.com. Great product, but eventually not a competitor to del.icio.us.
It’s so typical in this industry lately. The idea that you can duplicate a popular site without adding anything to enhance the original idea.
If you want to copy Flickr, fine. If you want to make money off of it you need to provide a service that has something that is incredibly useful to you and has a wide spread appeal to the world around you.
I keep hearing of people who put down these ideas of the web 2.0 bubble crashing, their main argument is that today’s sites aren’t based on the same income sources as the ecommerce sites of the past. Their mistake is thinking bubbles can only crash one way.
One of the major sources of income for new start-ups today is advertising. Slapping on some Google ads and getting enough hits could lead to a decent amount of money. Yet, as ad-blocking improves and fewer and fewer quality companies invest in online companies, the carpet’s gonna get pulled.
I can’t say what affects a web 2.0 crash could cause, if Google ads lose their effectiveness, Google itself will probably lose a good bit of revenue, but they have made a good choice in diversifying into many fields.
Hey Chris,
I have an idea for a website. It will be an online community that votes on and discusses the news!!! Are you interested :)
Wow Rich, that sounds like an amazing idea. Let me get in on the action too!!!
Blaine and Richard: I’m in. The first thing we’ll want is a killer name. I’m thinking…. Netnewsdiggit.