Web Industry | Jeremiah Owyang

Web Industry December 29, 2009December 29, 2009

Tell Your Y2K Story –Ten Years Later

We’re just a few days from Y2K+10, ten years after the big scare of the whole world collapsing from a lapse in computer programming foresight. I remember it closely, I spent a few hours in the later part of Dec 1999 backing up data at the small business my wife was working at. We were able to download nearly all of her company’s (a very small office) data onto just over a dozen zip drives, remember those? Funny that we could fit nearly all the digital files onto those drives –perhaps, if Y2K fears were to happen, it’s better than uploading to the cloud. I also remember an army of Y2K consultants, and their concerns over liabilities, appear marketing how … Continue readingTell Your Y2K Story –Ten Years Later

Web Industry August 10, 2009August 11, 2009

Facebook Acquires Social Veterans in FriendFeed Deal

Update: CNN, Financial Times, NYT, and BusinessWeek captured my thoughts in their articles. Facebook makes a play and acquires Friendfeed, a sharing and aggregation tool that helps people find out what their friends are doing. Read Friendfeed’s announcement, and Facebook’s blog post. A few months ago the Facebook and Twitter deal fell apart, and Facebook knows it must open its community to the open web –not just behind a login in order to benefit from generating revenues through advertising and search advertising. This Friendfeed acquisition make sense as it’s primarily a buy of the talent and team –not so much the website itself. Why? This team of ex-googlers have roots in gmail and google maps, they know how to build scalable … Continue readingFacebook Acquires Social Veterans in FriendFeed Deal

Facebook Strategy, Privacy, Web Industry July 2, 2009July 2, 2009

Facebook’s Awkward Adolescence

Facebook is undergoing pubescenct changes in the next few years –from a private pre-teen to a public facing member of society —that’s what I told USA Today. Facebook initially made it’s promise to be a private community, but realizes it must now be more public to compete with the open web. Expect more awkwardness for the social network and it’s users’ over the coming years. What are the indicators that Facebook wants to grow up and be public? Previous settings allow members to allow their profile page to be public and therefore findable by search engines. Facebook launched Beacon in late 2007 that was it’s first gangly moment that resulted in public backlash as customer data was shared without users’ consent. Facebook … Continue readingFacebook’s Awkward Adolescence

Web Industry May 8, 2009May 8, 2009

Firing Your Clients –Even During a Recession

Sometimes, in a recession, the best way to increase profitability is to fire your own customers. I’ve been hearing from a few vendors and agencies, that they’re letting go of their least wanted clients. Why? During a recession, vendors are focused on being efficient with all resources, and in some cases, some clients are net negative in time, energy, resources, and morale. Some clients are net negative There’s a rule-of-thumb in the business realm that 20% of your customers will comprise of 80% of your total revenues. If that model is true, then likely the inverse holds truth: the bottom 20% of your clients account for 80% of all of your resource spend. This is exactly what I heard from … Continue readingFiring Your Clients –Even During a Recession

Challenges, Web Industry October 14, 2008October 14, 2008

Compare and Contrast: Dot Com Bust and Web Two Point Doh

I’m spending my quiet time thinking about what lays in front of us, in fact, given the market data, there’s troubled times ahead not just for tech, but the US economy which of course impacts globally, as we’re major importers of goods from other nations. I was part of the first web bust, at a high flying startup that had 5 splits then came crashing to Chapter 11 –twice. I tell my story about Exodus and remember it vividly, as without recalling history, we’re doomed to repeat it again. In this post, I’ll compare and contrast how this was different from the last dot com bust in 2001, but I’ll do my best to provide an objective viewpoint –not one … Continue readingCompare and Contrast: Dot Com Bust and Web Two Point Doh

Funding, VCs, Web Industry October 6, 2008October 6, 2008

The Silicon Valley Transplant CEO

I’m extremely busy these past few weeks, and you’ve noticed a slow down in my posting (have you met our other analysts?), so I’m going to do a series of short blog posts, unlike my longer meaty posts. I met with Ali Partovi, CEO of iLike today, who told me about a recent trend of what I call “Transplant CEOs” that have addresses in Silicon Valley, are often here for meetings, but their company is located in other tech hubs like Seattle, Portland, Texas, Canada and beyond. Why this pseudo address? two reasons: 1) Running a company in silicon valley is expensive, talent tends to be flighty, and cost of living is high. In other cities, take Seattle for example … Continue readingThe Silicon Valley Transplant CEO

Groundswell, Industry Index, Web Industry September 20, 2008September 22, 2008

List of Social Media Marketing Awards

Celebrating the hard work that companies invest in social media efforts is not only a way to feel good about our accomplishments, but also a way to learn from the successes of others. The following list of social media awards gives agencies, brands, vendors, and consultants their chance to strut their stuff. Please leave a comment if you know of other awards. I realize there are many awards for startups (like Demo or Techcrunch 50), but this is awards for successes that brands have done using social media List of Social Media Marketing Awards Forrester’s Groundswell Awards (I’m a judge) Society for New Communications Symposium and Awards Womma Awards If you like this list, then you should check out my … Continue readingList of Social Media Marketing Awards