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Rapid turnover in the Web 2.0 space - the best get acquired

Ross Dawson, May 17, 2009 12:42 AM US PT

A review of what had happened to the Web 2.0 poster-children prompted me to review what had happened to the companies featured in my Web 2.0 Landscape dating from May 2007. This was one of the elements of our Web 2.0 Framework which has now been downloaded over 150,000 times.

In the diagram below the green circles indicate the companies have been acquired, while a red cross shows the company has joined the dead-pool. (This was a quick review so I may have missed things - let me know if so.)

If you compare this with the review of the companies in probably the most famous overview of Web 2.0 logos and companies below, my list seems to have been quite a lot more successful, I suppose since I was selecting these as representing a particular aspect of value creation rather than being randomly selected.

[UPDATE:] I've just worked out that this means 32.7% of the companies in our list have been acquired in the last two years, which is pretty significant turnover.

While this activity is over a period of two years, the very high turnover in companies (something like 70%) indicates to me more than anything else the pace of innovation in the space. Expect many more companies to emerge, and for most to either die or be acquired.

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4 Comments

Benn Glazier said:

Nice aggregation. :)

BTW, Feedburner is now owned by Google as opposed to dead.

May 17, 2009 2:36 AM

Silvia Pfeiffer said:

Ross,

Nice overview! It looks like the second picture represents somewhat the expectations of US VCs where most companies will fail.

BTW: in your picture, you should add Feedburner to the list of companies sold - it is now owned by Google.

May 17, 2009 2:44 AM

Ross Dawson said:

Thanks! Yes of course - Feedburner corrected in diagram.

May 17, 2009 5:19 AM

John Pelley said:

Interesting information. Thank you for sharing it with us.

May 17, 2009 2:34 PM

Ross Dawson is globally recognized as a leading futurist, entrepreneur, keynote speaker, strategy advisor, and bestselling author. He is Founding Chairman of four companies: professional services and venture firm Advanced Human Technologies, future and strategy consulting group Future Exploration Network, leading events firm The Insight Exchange, and influence ratings start-up Repyoot.

Ross is author most recently of Implementing Enterprise 2.0, the prescient Living Networks, which anticipated the social network revolution, and the Amazon.com bestseller Developing Knowledge-Based Client Relationships (click on the links for free chapter downloads). He is based in Sydney and San Francisco with his wife jewellery designer Victoria Buckley and two beautiful young daughters.