You may say that it is the Internet after all so geographical factor isn’t important. Well this had been proven quite wrong.

From the very start, geography determine the model a startup can use. If you look at Web2.0 concepts, alot are about linking people together, local information. Sure the idea can be generic but having a lare base of user to kick off helps a lot.

Then we look at getting revenue, advertisers. In a small market you get small revenue. Period. Sure you can cut deal over the net but many deal are still done face to face and locally.

Take the blogger mention above. Would someone outside of Singapore buy ads on her blog?

Ditto with investors. I read somewhere that even Australian flies to US for investor.

China might be an exception. A big market base and a common language. There are many underlying problems to solve but some interesting models might appear.

My answer to that is I don’t really has specific answer to it. Those new business model is a matter of existing model been creatively combined and its component rearranged to form another business model, and therefore I believe for those new business model will require “a look and see” attitude to verify its potential. Of course, market research will yield its market potential but sometimes, the market is irrational and unpredictable. Even the Ebay founder doesn’t guarantee that its model succeed when he first start out, and that most probably that why he keep his day job while working to start ebay.

After searching the internet, I find a site that explain virtually all the business model on the web written by a professor.
http://digitalenterprise.org/models/models.html

These site mention about several business model
Brokerage
Advertising
Infomediary
Merchant
Manufacturer (Direct)
Affiliate
Community
Subscription
Utility

My observation is that most are just combination of one or many of them.
To see it this way, the community could probably use advertising or somehow brokerage model.
But advertising could use brokerage (commission) model.

Since if that the case, I could sense that there are tons of ways to generate new models of revenue generation but then there is no guarantee that it will be profitable (since it is new anyway) until it been test on the market.

Those creative use of it will require combining those business models.
brokerage => advertising => direct .
or
Community => direct => affiliate.

Just imagine the permutation of several business model will generate. However, how the business will fit into the business model remain to be see. But by looking at this way, perhaps new ideas could cope in.

Which mean that those revenue might not be cash, but may be in term of knowledge, content or lead generate by the user or vendors that can be used to generate revenue eventually. For example, selling these intangible assets to corporate/marketer who need them.

This unfortunately lead to the complexity of the business model. The business model is supposed to be simple and understandable. Unfortunately, I observe that the business model will become increasingly complex because of the relationship between user , firm, partners become complex.

For example, look at XiaoXue, the Singapore Blogger, who earn $$$ using blog and advertising for other company. In order for XiaoXue to become even more popular, she might make a deal with the web search company to put her on high search profile if the search string is “blogger” rather than XiaoXue. And XiaoXue is also a good advertiser for blog company to generate web presence or investment.

So indirect revenue generation could be new business model .

No, I currently doesn’t have own blog, but I find it more interesting to comment on someone’s blog. It’s good to learn from someone as much as someone can understand my viewpoint.

Of course, I could be wrong about my view, but then at the end of day, I could have many perspective to ponder about.

I guess now investors should have become more prudent. Not sure if the same could be said of the startups.

No matter how many cute logos and fonts you throw into a website, if it does not have a solid business model (and I typically do not feel that web advertising is solid ) its just not going to make it in the long term. What happens is that the burn rate for online startups are so low that they typically manage to stay alive longer than they otherwise would have in other industries. What I see as lacking are business models that address a specific need which people can and will pay for. That’s survival principle #1 for any business.

I agree with you that tradition business sense is still important in dealing with new trends of innovations and technology business. What I believe is more important, is for the people who engage in these new innovations , to try to think of a new business model to consolidate the user base towards revenue generation. At present Web 2.0 model can only cater to the advertisements and perhaps, subscription. The real question will be, are they any other new models of revenue generation?

You write very interesting comments. Are you here in Singapore? Would be interesting to read and find out more about you if you have a blog. :)

So let assume that web 2.0 means social network where user access its service for free. It still possble if it is able to generate traffic and has third party advertising useful thing.

But I wonder advertising mode is sustainable since it become commodity. To earn money might mean to be different enough to be able to license their technology to others. This is the same strategy that Google used. They improved their search algoritm and use the “mass users” to validate how good their technology is. And their technology can be licensed to corporate since it is proven and reliable.

Unfortunately, nowsaday, a lot of web2.0 site basically offer incrementally improvement over the others , and most use advertising mode as source of revenue which become commodity (If you can do it, other may do it).

With no technology differentiation and licensing, it really to sustain profit through advertising.

Advertiser come and go, and you have no control, and you may be hold responsibility over credibility of advertiser and may lose credibility if the advertiser doesn’t deliver since you have affliate with the advertising company.

But with technology you own through licensing, you differentiate yourself between me-too site and may even use to attract user to your site.