Dimensions of differentiation in Web 2.0 business models
The influx of Web 2.0 based startups has raised interesting questions on their survival and business models. In some sorts there is a de ja vu of the events which occured 6-7 years back during the dot com boom and burst. Web 2.0 based business models are attempting to differentiate themselves along the following dimensions:
- Differentiated User Interfaces
- E.g. Netvibes
- Differentiated peer-to-peer interactions and collaboration mechanisms
- E.g. Blogger, Google Docs and Spreadsheets
- Differentiated Network participation
- E.g. del.icio.us
- Differentiated collective intelligence creation
- E.g. Flickr, Digg, Craigslist
- Differentiated aggregation mechanisms
- E.g. Housingmaps
These dimensions of differentiation are essentially data/information based, technology based or network/scale based. It would be interesting to see the combination of models which are able to generate sustainable competitive advantage.
