Digging Into Digg

Digg
In the wake of my Web 2.0 business model post yesterday, I’ve been thinking some more about Digg: Digg the cool service vs. Digg the business. To be honest, I’m not a huge Digg user, although I just installed the Digg extension within Firefox so I expect to be Digg-ing more often.
So, the question facing Digg (and the investors who just pumped $8.5-million into it) is how you take a popular, free service, and generate some revenue from it. The most simple route is advertising by running contextual-based ads against the content and/or attracting advertisers who who want exposure to Digg’s user base. Another revenue route is Digg Labs, which currently feature two projects – Swarm and Stack. Perhaps some of all of these projects can be turned into premium services.
Of course, Digg and many other popular Web 2.0 companies may not be in the business of creating sustainable business models. They may simply be in the “build it and they will buy” business where you strike lightning in a bottle, run as fast as you can for as long as you can to get as many users as you can so someone decides to acquire your users and database.

This entry was posted in Main Page, Web 2.0. Bookmark the permalink. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.

One Comment

  1. Anonymous
    Posted January 3, 2007 at 3:25 pm | Permalink

    I think you are exactly right with the idea of running fast and hope for a buy out. And why not? Companies like Google are basically buying companies for the users so that they can expose advertising to them using their own business models. The way to fast cash is to hit em hard and when you get a chance to bail with enough money to make you retire, you do it.

One Trackback

  1. By Mark Evans - Digging into….MyBlogLog on January 6, 2007 at 3:54 pm

    [...] Inspired by my examination of Digg’s business model earlier this week, I’ve moved the spot to MyBlogLog, which has been getting an awful lot of attention (see this ZDNet mini-review) ever since reports Yahoo was going to acquire it for $10-million. I’ve been using MyBlogLog for a long time as a tool to track what posts people are reading and what sites they are coming from, as well as a cool widget that tells you how many times a particular link in a post has been clicked on. Mostly recently, MyBlogLog has been attracting users with a social networking tool that lets you add other MyBlogLog users to your community. There’s also a widget that tells you the other MyBlogLog users (including their photos) who have visited your site. So, how does MyBlogLog make money? From what I can tell, it’s mostly from a premium service ($3 a month or $25 a year) that lets you see your statistics in real-time. This compares with the free service that lets you check statistics from the previous week. I suspect MyBlogLog’s push into the community/social networking markets has two angles: it attracts new users, which makes the company more attractive to potential advertisers and/or suitors; as well as creating a larger audience for the premium statistics services. If you believe where there’s smoke, there’s fire, Yahoo’s apparent interest in MyBlogLog suggests the company could be the next Web 2.0 start-up to be snapped up. « Toronto Hydro Wi-Fi is Awful [...]

Post a Comment

Your email is never published nor shared. Required fields are marked *

*
*

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

  • Subscribe RSSFollow me on TwitterSubscribe on FeedBurner
  • TwitterCounter for @markevans

  • How it works  |  Vision & Calls  |  Cost

    What's on

    Have you seen what you can get with BT's digital tv?

    © All Rights Reserved
    BT Vision and Calls

    Did you know that BT offers great deals in cheap mobile calls and cheap international phone calls? If you have a phone line with BT, come and see how we can reduce your bill of your home phone.


    Get one of our broadband telephone packages to get even more entertainment at a great value.

    How it works

    With BT Vision now you can enjoy Freeview digital tv channels, radio channels and a great range of on demand entertainment.

    Cost

    Get a deal at a great value with our digital tv packages. Visit our website to find out more.

    What you need

    BT Phone line

    BT Total Broadband

    A TV and aerial

    Freeview coverage

    Speed test  |  Availability  |  Support

    BT Total Broadband

    Want fast, broadband wireless internet? Get BT Total Broadband.

    Speed test

    If you are unsure of how fast your line is, have a broadband speed test. You just have to enter your telephone number or postcode below. You will need a minimum of 2MB speed to be able to get BT Vision.

    Enter phone number
    or postcode
    Availability

    Want to see check broadband availability in your local area? Enter your postcode in our broadband postcode checker below and find out what is available to you.

    Enter postcode
    Support

    BT offers great support with broadband services. Do you need broadband help? Contact us and we will be more than happy to help you.

  • Wikio - Top Blogs - Technology