I was searching for more info about the commenters on the first Blognation post, especially by non italians, while I discovered Four Starters, this blog from Cristiano Betta and others.

I’m slowly catching up with his pieces on Essential Web 2007 but for now I would like to quote a paragraph taken from the post “Why most web start-ups don’t fly“:

99% of all web start-ups die before they fly. That figure is higher than in any other industry. Why is that? Because most web start-ups don’t offer something customers actually need. Many people in the web 2.0 scene seem to disregard this.

I can see why. It’s relatively cheap to build web sites and with a potential worldwide market the prospects are extremely positive. Entrepreneurs, investors and enthusiasts - they all get carried away by the figures.

But if you don’t manage to tap into that worldwide market, it’s a whole different game. It’s not just bad for investors; it might blow up the industry once more (remember bubble 1.0?).

That’s why I believe we all need to be a bit more critical. Virtual communities might be the future of the web, but this doesn’t mean that any community will stand a chance, let alone be profitable. In the end, thinking of a good business model first is cheaper than just building web sites. It will pay off in the long run.

I find this paragraph really true. Web 2.0 introduces new, exciting, accessible and cheap opportunities and so many people believe that launching a new initiative only means putting together some lines of code and xml schemas. I agree that not any service must be a commercial (= profit generating) project but for those who are identifying a customer need and a matching revenue model should be the very first tasks.

I was discussing exactly about this with Alberto and even after some beers (well I only drink Cola Cola) we didn’t reach a common conclusion.

Are business models really mandatory or some sort of optional ingredients to be added accidentally?

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 10th, 2007 at 6:13 pm and is filed under Information Architecture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.