NMK 2007: VC on Web 2.0: "Build the traffic, THEN worry about the revenue…"

Stuart Dredge Web 2.0
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nicbrisbourne.JPGWasn’t the big problem with the first dotcom boom a few years back that loads of companies were focusing on getting loads of users for their swanky websites, without thinking hard enough about how they’d actually make money?

Because if so, it’s strange to see the mantra of ‘traffic first, revenues later’ holding sway in Web 2.0 circles too. I guess the difference is that Web 2.0 firms (the smart ones anyway) don’t have to spend tens of millions of pounds building that traffic, in a Boo.com-stylee.

Anyway, at today’s NMK Forum 07 social media conference in London, venture capitalist Nic Brisbourne gave a talk in which he was recommending the traffic-then-revenue approach.

He also pointed out that while music is the most advanced online service, video and TV are growing fast – with startups in these areas all including social aspects as an important part of their business models.

Interestingly, he also said that a big growth area will be sites that help web users navigate their way around the masses of audio and video content, such as aggregators and recommendation engines. It’s one of the reasons Last.fm was recently bought by CBS, for example.

Nic is also blogging from the NMK Forum here.

NMK Forum 07 website

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Stuart Dredge
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One thought on “NMK 2007: VC on Web 2.0: "Build the traffic, THEN worry about the revenue…"”

  • Yes, it is absolutely correct but traffic alone will not bring revenue unless that traffic is monetized. But if there is no traffic, nothing can be monetized and thus 0 revenue and the crash of the dotcoms.

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