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WTF 2.0 - Blame Google

February 27, 2006 in Google, web 2.0 by JDA

Russell Beattie (who has a commentless blog) has a post on the lack of business models in web 2.0. I blame Google for this phenomenon. The essence is this - web 2.0 companies launch with the idea that they are just about tech, they then build up a loyal and reliant base of users, and when the time comes they start monetizing. Just like Google did. The problem (and part of the reason for Google’s success) is that the tech community has an aversion to making money. They want things that they believe are aimed at the user not making money. If they think that it’s just about money the early adopters, won’t adopt. Worse, Google is still doing this, further leading to the follow the leader problem. Google still launches (beta launches) products without ads that become monetized later.

Until the leader stops, the followers won’t.