Executives from the world’s top technology and media companies convened near San Diego last week to discuss the future of their businesses and to tout new products that make the Internet more social and more mobile.

But from Hulu.com to Twitter to Microsoft Corp, the heady talk of new Web technology and innovation was matched by the continuing inability by many of the industry’s leaders to make money from their creations, no matter how popular.

Of course, revenues - let alone profits - seem secondary:

Raj Kapoor, a managing director at the Mayfield Fund venture capital firm, who attended the All Things Digital conference.

Kapoor, who co-founded Snapfish, a photo sharing site acquired by Hewlett-Packard Co in 2005, said it makes sense for start-up companies building new types of services on the Internet to concentrate on acquiring users and engaging them.

“If you don’t have any users, who cares if you’ve figured out monetization,” he said.

I don’t know,  but it’s easy to be cavalier when you’re spending other people’s money.

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