The following article is a modified excerpt of my next/third book called Context is King, which increasingly is being published in bits and pieces on this blog.
We’re about to enter a new phase of the Web’s development, the writing is on the wall.
The 1994-2000 era was Phase 1 (and frankly, that could be broken down into sub-phases). The 2000-03 era was marked by sobriety and survival, 2003-05 marked the stabilizing period and 2006 was clearly the buoyant and wild Web 2.0 era, which some are seeing ushering a new era of pragmatic growth and revenue development as of 2007.
Clearly, while the Web is maturing and seeing growth stabilize, it is also ironically seeing a rapid shift in such phases.
With that in mind, we thought it might be fitting to look at a number of startups and established players who have made their mark in the Web’s first 13 years. While the Mosaic browser was developed by Marc Andreessen and Eric Bina and launched in 1993, we consider April 4, 1994, the day Mosaic Communications Corporation was founded by Andreessen and Jim Clark as the starting point of the commercial web, or world wide web.
This April 4th will mark Netscape’s 13th year anniversary, and as such, we bring you the 13 most thrilling startups of the past thirteen years.
The following websites are either content, community or commerce related, we view the 3 Cs are highly intertwined.
The one thing they have in common, mainly, is that they do not require a download. As such, Skype and Napster (for example) are excluded from the list, as is Alexa, whom love or hate has become omnipresent but does require a download. Also, a site like AOL.com does not make the cut, because it was part of a closed, walled community for much of its existence. Finally, sites like MSN.com and iTunes.com which are backed by major corporations are excluded because a well-funded backer with deep resources can overcome most market opportunities. Lastly, instant messaging plays like XFire or ICQ were also ommited from this list.
We are also certainly missing on some great ones, and trust me, this started off as a Top 10, which grew into a Top 15, and then when we realized 2007 marks the 13th year anniversary of the World Wide Web, we cut the list down to 13.
Most importantly, there are many companies that would get consideration at one point in the 13 years but who lost their lead or disappeared after an acquisition. Geocities, for example, did not make it despite their legacy as MySpace’s precursor, because longevity is a trait of companies that are built to last, be it these are in the offline or online worlds.
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WatchMojo NewsletterThat’s what Piper Jaffray’s analyst Safa Rashtchy is saying, according to this:
Rashtchy recently published a report called “The User Revolution,” about the rise in what he’s calling “communitainment” as a mix of communication and entertainment, especially among the younger generations of Internet users. He’s also predicting $81 billion for global online ad spending by 2011.
We’ve had a lot of varying reports and figures, $81B comes somewhere in the middle. Other reports worth noting:
Online Advertising Market Growth:
- 2010: $28 Billion in US (eMarketer)
- 2010: $32 Billion in US (Morgan Stanley)
- 2010: $60 Billion in US (PriceWaterhouse)
- 2011: $60 Billion Global (Jeffrey Philipps)
- 2011: $80 Billion Global (Piper Jaffray)
- 2010: $110 Billion in Asia (PriceWaterhouse)
I have contacted PWC time and time again for clarification on the Asia figure, to no avail, but it’s there, in print.
The story also notes that Rashtchy will be taking a much deserved sabbatical, the man has become synonymous with the Web while boosters like Mary Meeker and Henry “Da Bull” Blodget came and went, and came back.
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