In addition to miserable bankers and panicky retirees, the global financial crisismeltdowndisaster thingy also means that the Web 2.0 revolution is probably over. No money means no entrepreneurial appetite on the investment front, so don’t expect another Twitter or YouTube in 2009. Besides, did any of these user-driven, social networking sites actually make any money? Nope. MySpace was snapped up by News Limited and made its creators a wad of dough, but has the media behemoth managed to actually generate revenue from it? Not so much.
Facebook also only generates a few hundred mil a year in banner ad revenue but has yet to turn its enormous database of consumer info into an income stream, despite the obvious appeal of such info to marketers. But all that looks set to change with Facebook Connect, a “content network” that allows you to carry your Facebook profile with you as you search the web. In otherwords, if you go to, say, Amazon, and buy a book, that purchase is recorded on your profile so that your friends can learn of your purchase. But even more powerfully, because the website you’re browsing actually knows who you are (your Facebook profile, silly!) it can target ads directly to you. Wow. There’s money in that. Billions of monies.
Here’s a pretty switched on blog by a pretty switched on blogger on the subject.
