Very recently, I asked a question on Friendfeed:

Does anyone know: What “percentage” of Web 2.0 companies are paying back satisfactory ROI to their investors? If you are equally passionate about food and technology, would you rather open a restaurant or a Web 2.0 service, provided the only decisive criteria are: better ROI and business longevity?

I did not get any responses, but continued thinking on this very vehemently. Apparently, I now have an answer to my question and a simple formula. So here goes …

Computers were invented to help humans. But computers weren’t humans, so engineers and scientists worked hard to make them as much like humans as possible by developing hardware and writing software that would allow the computers to resemble personal assistants, accountants, typists, etc.

Then came the Internet, followed by the WWW, the era of static websites and information sharing. This was more like an era of single-sided communication. Every website was like an authority whom you couldn’t question. That wasn’t bad, because humans can be like that sometimes.

Suddenly around the end of the 1900s, things started improving. With a plethora of tools like Linux, Apache, Java, Perl, MySQL, etc. the entire web was transforming into a dynamic web. People could have 2-sided communications and there was Hotmail, Internet Chat, Forums, Dating Sites, eCommerce, and it was all very exciting.

Some very smart people jumped in at the very onset of this transformation, did great work and made a lot of money! But there were also many-many people who were either not smart enough or late, and they didn’t succeed. The .com bubble had burst, bankruptcies filed, jobs lost – the web was dead!! Anyways, when you look back at the time it hadn’t burst, it was much like people wanted to do everything on Internet, what they wanted to do in the real-world.

Life went on. Then sometime in 2005, there was a sudden realization. The web was not dead, it was just more mature, it’s now Web 2.0. Things started improving, again. Smart people came back, not-smart-enough people and late-comers, arrived, too. Now, you know what I am talking about, right?

Anyways, people were wiser this time, and had learnt from the .com bubble! So, they wanted something like Web 2.0 before it was too late so that they could ride another bubble before the previous one fizzed out. And how creative have they been! Now we have Enterprise 2.0, Sales 2.0 and even Health 2.0. Wow! We (ATP…)* are now future-proof and will not be out of business for a very long time. All we need is a 2.0 and hey, presto! – “there’s your multi-million dollar industry!”.

(* ATP… = all the people who make money from the web, directly or indirectly)

If you are still reading, here’s what I think is what we (SOTP…) should do to build a sustainable, profit-making Internet-based business:

(* SOT… = some of the people who make money from the web, directly or indirectly)

• Never forget: all that I mentioned above (there’s more to it behind those words, but the lack of expression …)
• Develop something that the entire population of humans on Internet can use, not just a few people (becomes easier for them – your users/customers)
• Target a few people/companies, not the entire population of humans on Internet (becomes easier for us – SOT …)
• Know that: If they can use, they will
• Don’t repeat what’s been done, if you are targeting humans
• Innovate what’s just been done, if you are targeting companies
• Read the following as many times as it takes for you to incorporate it in your nature:

1. Note to Web 2.0 Companies: Early Adopters are not the Mass Market
2. I Know It When I See It

Hey, Presto!??

A restaurant?