Web 2.0 - It’s Already Happening, What’s Next?

Session Topic: Web 2.0 Predictions and Pithy Analysis
Speakers:
Roy Desouza, Zedo.com
Charles Buchwalter, Nielsen NetRatings

Roy started off his part by looking into the difference between the web 1.0 bubble and the new dynamic world of web 2.0 websites. Charles would seamlessly jump to slides that looked at various data points in internet traffic that clearly showed that these new web 2.0 websites were growing at erratic rates, faster than the big brands and getting more coverage therefore.
Web 1.0 - built in 97-99. Single user events.

Web 2.0 - defined these companies by their apps and as tools.

Nielsen Netratings Data for Web 2.0 websites:
Rankings, UA% #1, WPV% #1, VPP% #3, TPP% #4

Buckwalter created a custom category to find the data. Doesn’t exist in this service. 1 = fastest growing, most growth year over year, visits per person, time per person. Nielsen seems to be just on the cusp of getting it. Notes he hasn’t really looked into this phenomenom. Buchwalter mentions web 2.0 sites like friendster, engage, kiko, tribe and ryze; these sites have all been outdone by more successful, viral web 2.0 sites like Myspace, Match, YouTube and LinkedIn. As these sites that have been outdone try to play catch up through innovative technology, will this force the leaders to shift ahead to web 2.5 or web 3.0?
Buchwalter refers to Dion Hinchliffe’s blog:

1. Ease of use, open up your data
2. Feedback loops on everything
3. Continual release cycles
4. Make users part of your software
5. Turn applications into platforms
6. Dont create social communities just to have them

My opinion is that they are really piggy backing off of the research that is already there. There isn’t anything new in this session that San Francisco, London and San Diego aren’t already doing in terms of developing web 2.0 apps or websites. I believe the next generation is how quickly you can get your idea to market, how well you market it via your advocates and how scalable your development is to plan for future technologies.
The speakers also mentioned “agile product development.” They also keep bringing up Walmart a lot as a bad case study of what not to do when planning a social media marketing strategy and thinking you can spread it virally via your own implanted advocates. Nice try Walmart, better luck next time. But I guess I am talking about it, so it’s a start. One of the speakers referenced Rishad Tobaccowala, chief innovation officer of Publicis Groupe Media and the new head of Denuo, Publicis’s dream team of thought leaders - “You should iterate, not pontificate.”

Nielsen gave us some insight into the Web 2.0 denizens using search more!!

Searches per month - 63.8
Search sessions per month - 21.9
Share of search - google 52%, yahoo 24%, MSN 8%, aol 6%, ask 3%
(This data is very inline with the current search market share data. )

Since Roy heads up Zedo.com, an ad network for serving and publishing for web 2.0 websites, he gave some insight into the types of ad inventory available on these types of websites.
Two Types of Ad inventory

• Premium
• Lower volumes, higher cost, targeted
• Registered users so we have demo data
• Can target by interests
• Room for creative media buying

I thought that this data was already available and if you’ve tried to buy media through any of these web 2.0 websites, the range of ad inventory varies and there is a lot of room to negotiate with your sales rep due to the poor targeting technology being used by many of these websites. The better the targeting options, the higher the CPM.
Buying from early stage Web 2.0 sites:

• Remnants - buy old ad space on Myspace from advertising.com
• Frequency Cap negotiation is ideal!!
• May do CPA deals - inventory must convert
• Conversions better than news sites like CNN.com (younger demo)
• CPM’s are low (sub $1 CPM) for big buys

Buying From Premium Web 2.0 Sites

• Buy from company directly
• Creative deals, sponsored groups, customized environments
• Case Study: T-mobile campaign on hi5.com
• CPMs of $2-20 (video ads on upperend)

Nielsen reported that “15-20% of population using web 2.0″

OPEN FORUM FOR QUESTIONS:
Business model is advertising.
Selling low cost ads, video ads in the future.
Props to Rupert Murdoch for buying Myspace.

Nielsen guy says video is a huge role with advertising, 2007-08, growing 80% this year and 90% next year.

Advertiser Threshold:

1. 5M Users (needed for impression rate I assume)
2. Demonstrate conversion through advertising

Zedo serves ads to technorati, zillow, etc.
Seeing a lot of financing type sites advertising.
Brand advertisers will pay higher premium.

Balancing Adserving with Consumer Freedom?
Users hated popups (given)
Users also tolerated ads for lower or no subscription fees.
Roy of Zedo states that remnants ads on average get a .1% CTR.

Instead of going right in and saying that I was disappointed in this session, I’ll give two different point of views. The session excerpt stated the following, “…Nielsen//NetRatings will look beyond the MySpaces and YouTubes to find the next up-and-coming properties…” I never heard this. Why?

Overall a good overview session for the clients, agencies and vendors who had very little to no knowledge of the web 2.0 space. You got a good review of how to define and identify web 2.0 websites, why they are so successful, how to buy media on these sites and what are the traits of a web 2.0 user. Now if you are on the other side, this session could have been so much more. I could have logged into my Netvibes homepage and read my feeds from Mashable, Techcrunch, eHub and Adotas. I was expecting to learn something new and in a way I did. There is definitely something happening in the internet with the web 2.0 movement, but I believe it is progressing beyond cool AJAX interfaces and custom user profile pages. Getting someone to say, “Whoa, that’s cool” can only happen when you introduce something new to them every few weeks. So Rishad, I agree with your whimsical statement about iteration, but it extends beyond technology to how you deliver it as well and how that message is passed from ambassador to ambassador.

technorati tags: social networking | adTech New York | social network strategy | web 2.0 | social media marketing | adtech nyc