Comments on: Web 2.0 Manages to Sober Up

By: Investors Take a Stroll with Widgets - GigaOM

Investors Take a Stroll with Widgets - GigaOM — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 00:09:24 +0000

[...] the uncertainty around how to make money with widgets and widget platforms. Or perhaps it’s more evidence of investor sobriety. Share/Send Sphere [...]

By: Web 2.0 version 49 - The Yourdon Report - Blogging the impact of computer-related technology trends, and whatever else catches my interest.

Fri, 16 Nov 2007 15:54:19 +0000

[...] On page 116, I added a sub-bullet point entitled “Web 2.0 Manages to Sober Up“ [...]

By: Is this the end of Facebook’s media honeymoon? | mobileYouth

Is this the end of Facebook’s media honeymoon? | mobileYouth — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 12:40:37 +0000

[...] Pundits have been quick to kick the chair out from under the web2.0 cavalcade (before someone else manages to do so first) with influential writers such as Om Malik raising concern over the network’s intentions. It doesn’t help when well read publications such as the Post start running stories entitled “Facebook.com Increasingly Overbearing and Terrible“. [...]

By: Geek And Poke

Geek And Poke — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 22:19:24 +0000

The Matured Market Of Web 2.0

See Anne Zelenka from GigaOM (seen through Techmeme) about the new soberness of Web 2.0.

By: BeerCo Software Blog » Blog Archive » Web 2.0 starts to die down

BeerCo Software Blog » Blog Archive » Web 2.0 starts to die down — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 22:27:38 +0000

[...] Web 2.0 starts to die down As written by Anne Zelenka here: [...]

By: Don Jones

Don Jones — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 21:40:48 +0000

Venture capitalists are very mee-too in their investments. It is inevitable, since variations of the same ideas usually start presenting themselves at the same time. It is relatively rare for a VC to see something that is completely unique.

By: JamesBruni

JamesBruni — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 16:56:33 +0000

When it comes to funding for startups, there’s never a “last call” from the bartender (or VC community). We’ve all grown tired of Rubel’s pontifications.

By: Thomas

Thomas — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 16:55:44 +0000

This above “interview through comments” is exactly why MSM is dead. In a situation where a blogger gets it wrong, someone can help improve the discussion. And as a reader, I learn something not only from the correction but also from watching how the correction gets made: a much more satisfying experience. Unfortunately with MSM’s one-way dialogue they just get to transmit and given that they mess up half of what they print, it’s just an exercise in frustration for an informed reader.
Thanks Anne and VC Data Junky for putting on a clinic!

By: Web 2.0: Drunken Mayhem or Sobriety Test? « Fast Wonder

Web 2.0: Drunken Mayhem or Sobriety Test? « Fast Wonder — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 16:34:23 +0000

[...] Zelenka posted some interesting thoughts on GigaOM about the current web 2.0 environment in her Web 2.0 Manages to Sober Up post yesterday. While Steve Rubel predicts doom and gloom ala the 2000 dot-com bust, I think Anne [...]

By: Vincent van Wylick

Vincent van Wylick — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 15:55:45 +0000

In my experience, VCs (at least the Kleiner Perkins-type) are pretty rational in their investments. There is no point in investing in businesses, of which there are dozens of clones, or which can easily be replicated to negate any possible sustainable competitive advantage. Alternatively, those businesses, which base their products and services on highly innovative technology (and very talented people), and can communicate this well, should find little problems in finding funding.

By: Mark Evans » Blog Archive » The Weekly Wrap

Mark Evans » Blog Archive » The Weekly Wrap — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 12:47:13 +0000

[...] I’ve seen in a long time: Bub.blicio.us, which covers the “social economy”. Given all the angst recently about the Web 2.0 sky falling, Bub.blicio.us is ironically [...]

By: Mike Abundo

Mike Abundo — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 08:33:05 +0000

What we’re seeing isn’t binge drinking, just social drinking. ;)

By: News Corp Makes A Bone Shaking Phone To Combat Beacon | How To Split An Atom

Sat, 10 Nov 2007 05:40:34 +0000

[...] Corp decides to join the newest craze of rolling up an ad network, Web 2.0 might be losing a bit of steam and iTunes just might be letting you rent videos [...]

By: Anne Zelenka

Anne Zelenka — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 01:57:43 +0000

Can’t pass up the chance to get some informed insight!

You make a good point that whatever’s happening now has a lot to do with what happened in the nineties… some people/firms/industries never did fully sober up. We had a soft landing as housing picked up the slack, now housing is stumbling and what’s left to keep us going?

Maybe tech, who knows. But maybe there will be more carnage. It sure seems the economy’s never fully worked out the excesses of the late nineties.

By: VC Data Junky

VC Data Junky — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 00:23:37 +0000

Hmm, comment thread as interview. First for me. ;)

You’re correct in that we are at almost precisely 1997 levels for numbers of funds raised and have been for the last 3ish years. When you consider the best returns have always seemed to come from vintages with lower numbers of funds (1997 was the last decent year, 1996 was the peak of returns - again see some of Fred’s posts) seems like we got hammered, started sobering up, then decided we’d keep trying to hold off the headache with the occasional beer. I think there’s still a bunch of carange to be seen over the next few years in terms of funds going away, or splitting up (as has happened a lot in the life sciences funds).

By: Anne Zelenka

Anne Zelenka — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 00:09:46 +0000

So a better chart given dropping proportion of funds reporting numbers would be actual numbers of funds raised, on that measure sounds like we are not near dotcom peak. 2004-2006 is at about 1997 level, a little buzzed but not totally smashed. But only in comparison to dotcom boom, how much does that tell us anyway?

VC Data Junky, you know the numbers through and through -- do you think it looks drunken from VC perspective? With caveat every situation is different and this is all speculative talk. Unlike with actual drunkenness, it's hard to tell when things have gotten too crazy economically speaking.