Friday, April 25, 2008

Web 2.0 and the Economy

Recession, downturn, slump, sluggishness, call the economy what you will, but "boom" isn't in the vocabulary. This week is Web 2.0 in San Francisco, and CNET's Social Blogger Caroline McCarthy observes the confusion at the conference over how the internetizens are weathering the storm.

Unlike the last slump in 2001-2002, the Internet isn't a contributing factor, so there's no excess to recess. Online ad revenue is still strong, though investing in clean tech is more popular than web startups.

The old media recognizes that Web 2.0 technologies are the future, so they won't be cutting back to focus on print subscriptions. Marketers too recognizes that going directly to consumers online can have a better return rate than say, outdoor or direct mail.

However, with budgets overall tightening, Web 2.0 collaboration technologies might see a slight bump as socializing online or sharing docs is far cheaper than chatting on a plane.

So cautious optimism is the way to go unless a full blown recession hits.

By John Gartner at 09:57 AM | Comments (0)

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