Investing time and talent in Web 2.0

"Investing time and talent. At the third annual Web 2.0 Conference in San Francisco, dozens of industry players will gather to break down topics like Internet infrastructure, Net neutrality, mashups, data protection and the future of podcasting and especially video," from my blog posting 11/7/06 11:31 AM.

“Google has acquired JotSpot. Existing users: Rest assured — you will continue to have uninterrupted access to your JotSpot account! Our support team is still available to help you.” Is the information on JotSpot’s home page. Google is busy profiling itself as a leading Web 2.0 company. They move around with pockets full of money and go for innovative new ventures active within the Web 2.0 framework.

But what happened to JotSpot? I don't have a clue about how it was integrating. Haven't seen the effects of JotSpot.

“But for any similarities to the late '90s Internet craze, today's Web 2.0 buildup is a kinder, gentler bubble, say entrepreneurs and investors.” Reports ZD Net.

The eventual Web 2.0 bubble has been overshadowed by the housing subprime and banking crisis in US.

Where are the European counterparts to this development? There is a lack of big Internet players in the "Old Europe". We might have a healthy garage level development here, but nobody is fooling around with big junks of money and searching for new ventures to invest in. That might be one of the reasons to our relative invisibility. European Web 2.0's don't make headlines. We continue to do our daily work, struggle with our projects, but we don't know how to make the buzz and how to get traditional media and broadcasting attention.

• Jaiku made it 2007 (aquired by Google)
  
• Web 2.0
• Attention Economy
• Innovative Collaboration Friendly
• Interactive and User Generated Content

"JotSpot is a wiki company that Google acquired last week," I wrote November 2006.

Acquisitions by he big players are helping to fuel entrepreneurial creativity. Experts say new online business models are more mature, compared to the dot.com boom, and give today's Web start-ups a better prognosis for lasting for a longer time.

• We might have a slightly different timespan
• Web 2.0 started in the Silicon Valley, The San Fransisco Bay Area
• The big players have given YouTube, Writely, Flickr, JotSpot, etc. big visibility
• eBay managed to buy Skype from Europe to the US West Coast

Ordinary people are a part of the bubble, while the user generated content is a big part of the success of high-profile Web 2.0 techies. But this time, users are not investing their hard-earned dollars or euros in the new ventures, they are investing their time and creative talent.

• We're the world (The wisdom of the crowd, Crowdsourcing, Creative Collaboration)
  
• Like in the 60's, Bob Dylan, one man and a guitarr
• A new surge of small start-ups
• Big doesn't need to be beutiful
• The small players are receiving attention
  

"Why the sudden boom in Web 2.0 companies? There are a few reasons, both technical and business related, say investors and analysts. More people have high-speed Internet connections, making applications such as photo, music and video sharing feasible. The underlying software to build Web services is being upgraded as well, lowering technical barriers that existed only two years ago," comes from my blog posting 11/7/06 11:31 AM. I recycle it an analyze what's new.

• Broadband is now also becoming mobile
  
• The digital camera has more pixels; quality is superb; smaller, lighter
  
• Smart phones and digital cameras, plus video
  
• MP3 players, iPod and iTune and iPhone
  
• Blogs are easy to use free expression forums
• MyTube says it all - it's my tube for visual expression

What has changed in one and a half year? The Web 2.0 is maturing. The applications have more depth. The "crowd" is getting bigger.

Invest in Sweden Agency - Venture capital flock to Sweden

Invest in Sweden Agency - Venture capital flock to Sweden: " June 25 2007 | Venture capital flock to Sweden. Sweden is in the European top three and probably one of the world’s best when it comes to attracting Venture Capital. In relation to GDP, Swedish companies are the best in Europe.

According to the EVCA (European Private Equity and Venture Capital Association) 71 billion euro was invested in last year by Venture Capital companies. That is an increase with 50 percent compared to 2005. Among the European countries Swedish companies are the top receivers in relation to GDP. 1,44 percent of the GDP was invested by Venture Capital in Sweden last year. Great Britain is second with 1,26 percent and the Netherlands come in third with 1,05 percent of GDP.

In absolute numbers Sweden comes in third place. Great Britain received almost half of all invested capital in Europe. France came in second. In Sweden, 43 billion Swedish crowns was invested by Venture Capital. 6 billion went to upstart-companies and the remaining 37 billion was buyouts.

Source: Svenska Dagbladet"

Venture Capital in relation to GDP:

1. Sweden
2. Great Britain
3. Netherlands

In absolute numbers Sweden comes in third place:

1. Great Britain
2. France
3. Sweden

We've a lot to learn from Sweden when it comes to how to attract Venture Capital.

Trend Factory

Finland has been a trend setter in the mobile industry. Nokia is still the largest mobile phone's producer on this globe. Apple is a new player in the mobile world. Nokia has a giant lead with 34 % market share. Apple, planning to sell 10 million iPhone's, is only targeting for 1 % of the global market.

From a Finnish point of view, there has been a shift in trend setting capacity and power. Web 2.0, Google, Flickr, YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, iPod, iTunes, and now the iPhone have been created and conceptualized on the North American west coast. Flickr was started in Canada, Vancouver. We've lost our position as a trend setter in the information society.

This year, at the the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos, the leading entrepreneurs did come from US, the west coast. The lack of European entrepreneurs was evident. EU is trying to become a leading information society. But at this very moment, we talk more, and achieve less. The trend setting factory has been moving over to Silicon Valley.

If we can't beat them, why not join them? I need to think more about this in the coming postings. We've great SME's in the field of mobile development. We might do things together. The global market is waiting for Web 2.0 and Mobile 2.0 convergence products. We Finns could get out of the cold and do things together with Apple, Google, Yahoo, etc.

We've one promille of world population, but we are a super power in mobile development. We're not strong enough alone.

Money talks with SMEs

I've been writing about microloans. One microfinancing field that is very important in this country (Finland) is a risk financing, venture capital system for SMEs, companies that are in an early stage of business development. Those who have a niche product and have a need to get out on the world market. The national Finnish market is typically very small and our SMEs have to get out to the world market in a very early phase of the company life cycle. The US population is 60 times larger. A US based company can operate within the national market for 60 times longer than a comparable Finnish company.