No Web 2.0 Bubble
May 20, 2006
Here is one reason why I don’t think we are in a web 2.0 bubble, there hasn’t been a rush of web 2.0 companies trying to go public. In the late 90’s, if you put a .com behind of any company name, you had a viable business model that the markets would support.
Vonage, a leading VOIP company is preparing an IPO in the next couple of weeks. The company and IPO have come under heavy scrutiny because their business model and valuation, even though they are in a very web 2.0 space (VOIP). Here are some great posts from The Stalwart and GigaOM about the Vonage IPO.
If this were a bubble, people would be ignoring the concerns of people like Any Kessler and Joseph Weisenthal, and focusing on how to get in the Vonage IPO, and guessing how much it was going to be up in the first day.
When I see digg.com or del.icios.us IPO with a valuation north of a $100 million, I will concede bubble.
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1.
G. Roper | May 20, 2006 at 3:51 am
Claiming VOIP as being “in a very web 2.0 space” is BS. VOIP was successfully established long before “Web 2.0″ slipped off O’Reilley’s tongue in a drunken fit.
Web 2.0 is marketspeak. Don’t try to convince people that there is something to Web 2.0 other than charlatans fanning the flames of greed.
2.
eccobay | May 20, 2006 at 4:21 am
Hi G.Roper,
I agree with you that VOIP has been around long before the term “Web 2.0″ was coined. Same goes for the term AJAX, which is a cooler name for DHTML.
I remember the days of Net2Phone, VocalTec, etc… The problem with these companies is that they were never able to hit a critical mass. Excuse the marketspeak, but I think Web 2.0 brings this technology to the masses.
VOIP is gaining more momentum through integration into the major IM clients, through companies like Skype and Vonage, and advances in WiFi technology. I disagree with your comments around web 2.0 being based around “charlatans fanning the flames of greed.”
David