Well maybe it is a little bit late to write about "Web 2.0" now, since it is dying, at least does one gain the impression when looking at some posts. But my point is, that "Web 2.0" is a nice concept for niche-players and start-ups, but not really for big companies. I came to write this post, because I have recently read another (old) article about an economist research paper here. There the author states, that the economist does not mention "Web 2.0" or other word combinations containing the suffix "2.0" and thus is incomplete. This is clearly not my point of view for this topic and I will tell you why.
Maybe I have to be a little bit more concrete about my statement from above, when I said, that Web 2.0 is nothing for big companies. Sure there is money in this field and sure the big companies will be competing in the field of "Web 2.0" exactly because there is some money at stake. But the label "2.0" is not really one which big players will paint in big letters on their flag.
This has some reasons, as I think, in the long term strategic planning of big software companies. If you want to know a little bit more about the software industry and software management (in the sense of software as a product) then you should maybe read the book of Hans-Bern Kittlaus and Peter N. Clough: Software Product Management and Pricing (2008, Springer).
Well my thought is straightforward and simple: If there has been a development from the "Web 1.0" to the "Web 2.0", which has been for a big part just a communication trick, there will be with some certainty in the future a "Web 3.0" (or however this is called then). Under aspects of long-term relations to and with customers to swim with the big masses on the "2.0" wave may be an option, but to label its own products with the tag "Web 2.0" does communicate some disruptive change to the customers. And that is not what a company wants. They want to be trustworthy and have a stronger focus on the long-term relationships. This means also to look back to loyal customers, which have the need that their products work for some longer periods of time and want interoperability.
But not only this leads my to my opinion. Together with the new programing practices in the new era of the Internet, X-treme Programing became famous. This means to push out your products to the market and label it with "Beta". A few sites have used this to communicate to their users that they will constantly work on their code and will improve it. Others just used it to say that they have an unfinished product and do not take any warranty for data losses or whatever might be possible. The "Beta"-Tag is in this sense, also a, maybe subliminal, but undesired state of the product to communicate.
There may be some more reasons, why not so many big companies have put a "2.0"-Tag on their products. But the here mentioned, are the most important in my eyes.
To make one thing clear here at the end of this article: That the companies have not jumped in immediately into the hype does not mean that they do not have profited or learned from this phenomenon. I am sure that there has been plenty of innovation in this time, out in the "Web 2.0" and within the companies.
In this sense do I wait excited for the things to come in the Internet.
Leave a comment