2008 WEB-BASED TRENDSHTC Web-based Business Startup Seminar
Joshua Tabin, Startup Houston
STARTUP HOUSTON Startup Houston (www.startuphouston.com) advocates
and supports technology based startups in the greater Houston region by bringing local entrepreneurs and developers in contact with the greater marketplace through blog articles, sponsorship of social networking events and education of the startup process.
Our team: Kurt Stoll, Chief Technology Evangelist Josh Tabin, Chief Rainmaker
DISCLAIMER
Forecasting is an imperfect science
The only guarantee I can make you is that I am wrong; the questions is “how wrong am I?”
The following are my personal thoughts on what are important trends on the web based on my own research and review of other, and smarter, people’s lists
TOP TRENDS Mobile, mobile and mobile
Social network and profile management
Hyper-targeted advertising
The global economy gets small
Deconstruction of internal IT
MOBILE EXPLOSION Mobile web usage is poised to take off in the US as it
is already quite prevalent overseas
Multimedia content from and on mobile devices The success of the iPhone shows us the desire of
consumers to mobilize their content; Google’s Android could accelerate mobile web as well as 3G deployment;
Companies that leverage mobile platforms to allow ease of distributing content as well as receive more robust services like video and gaming should do well
Location based services that mashup with social media should bring usage to new levels
KEEPING UP WITH SOCIAL Facebook, Plaxo, LinkedIn, MySpace, Twitter etc…who
can keep up?
OpenID should become ubiquitous with recent adoption by AOL and Yahoo allowing for easier profile management
Web based services should begin a migration to the desktop as Adobe AIR and Microsoft Silverlight gain traction
Consolidation are overdue but can valuations hold up
ADVERTISING SPECIFICALLY FOR YOU Time shifting (podcast, DVR) has made attention a
elusive item for advertisers
Bartering your attention to advertisers is being tested with peer-to-peer ad supported downloads (SpiralFrog, Qtrax, MySpace)
User defined ad profiles will allow individuals to structure their interest so advertisers can deliver relevant ads instead of the historic “shotgun” approach
Location based advertising should begin to enter into the market as retailers test mobile couponing based on proximity to a location
HYPER LOCAL Peer-to-peer eCommerce: small business growth
should accelerate as the macro economic conditions worsen
Niche social communities: special interest communities will pop up at a more rapid rate allowing small business the ability to compete for business with larger enterprise
Micro-blogging: applications like Twitter will enable increased dialogue and information sharing with a broader audience, providing small business with a new medium for having conversations with their market
WHAT DON’T YOU OUTSOURCE? There is little that cannot be outsourced from an IT
perspective today, making it more of a commodity than ever
Software as a Service: more standard software packages will have an online, utilitarian model turning the traditional licensing model on its head
CRM (SalesForce, SugarCRM, Highrise) ERP (NetSuite) Business tools (ZoHo, Google Apps)
Cloud/utility computing Amazon Web Services Content delivery networks
BIG PICTURE I expect a significant slowdown in the global economy
in 2008 which will hamper growth;
Companies with an advertising based model will need to prepare for a pullback in spending, enough to weather a storm of potentially significant proportions;
Venture investing will continue in web tech but have to demonstrate strong long-term returns when compared to “hot” industries: Nanotech Green tech Healthcare
JOSH [email protected]@MOSAICCFO.COMWWW.STARTUPHOUSTON.COM