Best Web LittleCo of 2006 - and Most Promising for 2007
This is the third annual Best Web Companies round-up from Read/WriteWeb (ref: 2005 and 2004). This year we're spreading it out over 2 separate posts and this is the second one - see yesterday's post for Best BigCo of 2006.
Best Web LittleCo
It was a very hard decision this year, for a few reasons. Firstly a number of the frontrunners for Best LittleCo ended up being acquired by the end of the year! This is probably the nature of the beast - if you're a successful Web LittleCo, then you'll attract the attention of BigCo suiters. This is exactly what happened to our 2004 picks, Ludicorp (creator of Flickr) and del.icio.us - both of which were snapped up by Yahoo in 2005. Having said that, 2005 LittleCo winner 37Signals is still independent and doing its own thing.
So to 2006 - which LittleCo's have most impressed? In our post asking that very question, the following web apps were popular with commenters: MyBlogLog (the social networking widget featured in the sidebar of R/WW and other blogs), Meebo (web-based IM), DigitalJournal.com (social news), 30Boxes (online calendar), Zoho (web office suite), Clipmarks (social bookmarking), Netvibes (start page). Those were the ones that were mentioned more than once.
Companies that were not mentioned, but we think are worthy contenders, are: Digg (social news), Feedburner (feed management), Facebook (social networking), Sharpcast (sync), JotSpot (web office), last.fm and pandora (online music), Metacafe (online video), StumbleUpon (bookmarking), Bebo (social networking), Zimbra (web office), Userplane (media web platform), Kaboodle (social shopping), Elgg (e-learning), PlentyOfFish (online dating), Goowy (desktop suite), SecondLife (virtual world), Riya (photo search), BitTorrent Inc (P2P)... and there are many more we could mention!
If we had to make a shortlist (and we do, since this is a Best Of!), we think these small companies had a special impact in 2006... in no particular order: Netvibes, Digg, Meebo, Bebo, StumbleUpon. Those 5 all came of age in 2006 and each grew exponentially.
But there's one "LittleCo" we've deliberately left till last and which had an outstanding impact on 2006. This particular company got snapped up by Google before the year was out, so they don't count as a LittleCo any more. But for most of 2006 they built up a huge audience on their own and came to dominate the user-generated video space, lording it over much bigger competitors (Google itself, Microsoft, Yahoo and others). Of course, I am talking about YouTube!
YouTube is Read/WriteWeb's LittleCo of the year, for what they achieved as a tiny startup doing big things. Ironically they are now owned by this year's BigCo of the year, Google.
Most Promising Web Company
With this category we're looking for companies that showed big promise in 2006, but will probably not reach their peak until 2007 or beyond. In 2004 we gave this honor to Feedburner, who at that time were right at the forefront of a new industry called feed management. Well, they've done alright for themselves haven't they... And in 2005, Memeorandum and Digg.com were our choices. Digg has come of age this year, although they still mainly appeal to a minority tech audience. TechMeme has expanded into new verticals, but like Digg there is room for more growth yet.
The following shortlist of Web companies/products stood out for us as having a lot of promise for 2007 and beyond: Sharpcast, Zoho, Zimbra, YouOS, MyBlogLog. Also there are some long bets we could make, like Hakia (semantic search) or BitTorrent, Inc (Bram Cohen's P2P company).
The winner though is Sharpcast, because it is solving a big problem (syncing data across Web, desktop and other devices) and also is an integral part of many different trends that will be popular in 2007 and beyond - mobile, rich media, a world of multiple devices, and more. If Sharpcast can successfully roll out its Project Hummingbird in 2007 - which will sync all types of data - then it will be hitting a very sweet spot in the world of Internet-connected data.
Your Feedback
So what do you think - do you agree with our choices?
Comments
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I agree, syncing data is becoming more important as time goes on. There are so many places we need syncing:
- Between web apps
When we want to mover formr flickr to something else for example (ha just kidding)
- Between our desktops and the web
Which SharpCast looks to be doing.
- Between desktops and devices
Apple are good at this one already with iPods and bluetooth mobile phones
- Between multiple desktops
Where one user wants their files accessible on multiple desktops
I predict there will be a trend towards online central storage, moving away from desktop computer as the central storage location. But will users trust online storage services run by companies? What if they go out of business?
Sharpcast is perhaps just a small piece of the synchronisation puzzle.
Tim
http://bla.st/web-2.0/
Strangely, I agree with ReadWriteWebs selection of Best Littleco. In fact the sale or the exit of sorts for the initial owners, I think, confirms the success. The other contenders until they "cashout" maybe are more suitable for Most Promising.
www.jollyjo.org
what defines a littleco? Facebook is pretty damn impressive given how big they got with little funding, and how successful they've been since the large funding. Yeah they have a lot of employees but they're a speck compared to Yahoo/Google/Amazon etc.
I think this could be interesting to you!!
http://whales.greenpeace.org/global
Greenpeace presents a new website in Web 2.0 where people can give ideas to improve the next expedition to Antarctic to protect the whales. You can post your idea or comment and vote other’ s ideas. The whaling fleet has left Japan, and is headed directly to the Southern Ocean. 945 whales will be killed - unless we do something to save them.
See this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6CbG7qopX0
Sharpcast is a very interesting choice. I'm not sure if they will be the big player in 2007. But one thing ist quite sure: In 2007, desktop and web will finally start to merge.
a short note for this year: My very big concern is that web 2.0 has not a solid foundation. It's all about adsense revenue and we hardly now how much many cash youtube, facebook and co actually make. I hope the web will clean itself up again very soon and then only the real innovations will stand out.
I would disagree that web 2.0 is all about adsense revenue. That is certainly a *byproduct* of a successful web 2.0 app, but in my opinion it's the human factors being introduced into software in general.
If you look at the evolution of products, the first few iterations are focused on utility-- does it do x, y and z and how well. Here the geeks rule since the arguments can get quite arcane. Think how weird them newfangled 'Automobiles' appeared to people used to horses all their lives.
However, at some point the general populace reaches general agreement on what general people like you or me can expect from an automobile. Then the production genius of Henry Ford loses importance and the marketing genius of Alfred Sloan takes the automobile to a more emotional, visceral level.
Software is no different. As such, perhaps Bill Gates was the Henry Ford of his day, and now web 2.0 is quite possibly a harbinger for the new Alfred Sloan to appear.
And I think Sharpcast is an excellent pick. Project data synchronization is what my company is all about, so obviously I believe in the value proposition in general. If Sharpcast can *solve* the problem in general, then yes, they could easily outdo YouTube.
Remember, there are ridiculously more options becoming available for interacting with data. If you can becoming vital plumbing for moving that data from device to device, you will have a very big seat at a very high-stakes table.
You did not mention Web integration software like Kapow and iMacros... that is my pick for 2007
Awesome to see Clipmarks mentioned up there, and in such amazing company! I absolutely adore meebo, and I've just been turned on to the brilliance that is MyBlogLog.
I'll have to check Sharpcast out :)
Netvibes gets my vote, I'm glad it's mentioned as one of the most promising apps. It's good enough that I ditched all other RSS readers. Goowy is also really good.
Get real. Best LittleCo's with multimillion dollar VC funding rounds? I think not. Nevibes is cool stuff but they have PLENTY of cash in the bank which would disqualify them from being a LittleCo.
How about nominating REAL LittleCo's like Tailrank which have kicked serious *ss without raising *any* VC. :)
Can I also mention that we're *profitable* which is certainly a rare condition among the valley set. :)
Nice job with the selections. Definetly some good companies in the list, though I personally don't use YouTube very much.
Good choices. Thx for mentioning Clipmarks, which was my absolute favorite in 2006 and will be in 2007. I am a very satisfied user of MyBlogLog too and I recommend everybody who is not down with overloaded Analytics to check it out.
I want to vote for www.whitegyr.com - MarkH