The Top 60 Web 2.0 Applications in Australia
Editor's Note: This post was written by Ross Dawson, CEO of Advanced Human Technologies and Chairman of Future Exploration Network. Ross is holding a Web 2.0 event in Sydney, Australia on June 6, which I will be a speaker at. In preparation for the conference, Ross has produced this amazing list of Top Aussie Web Apps. Almost as amazingly, I personally know people from all of the top 9 companies in this list, mainly because they all seem to be in Silicon Valley at the same time as me ;-) Which is to say, hanging out at Web 2.0 conferences and infiltrating Mike Arrington's house. Australians are a resourceful lot! Indeed, note that Ross almost tries to claim a New Zealand company below (Eurekster), but he admitted it was kiwi in the end... well the technology anyway! Remember Split Enz? :-) Kiwi band claimed by Australians as their own. Anyway, I digress. Here is Ross' excellent post -- enjoy!
At Future Exploration Network's Web 2.0 in Australia event on June 6, we are including a showcase of the top five examples of Web 2.0 coming out of this glorious country. Identifying who we wanted to invite to the showcase proved a marvelous opportunity to take a good look at what's out there in the world of Web 2.0. The result is the following list of Australia's Top 60 Web 2.0 applications.
At the Web 2.0 in Australia event we are showcasing five companies (written up in more detail here) - Atlassian, Gnoos, Omnidrive, Scouta, and Tangler. These fascinating and innovative companies have been chosen for our showcase because they are particularly effective in showing the diversity of the field to our senior executive audience, which gave slightly different results to the Top 60 list.
You'll find our Top 60 below. The sites are ranked in approximate order of how prominent they are (or should be), based on four criteria:
- Web 2.0 characteristics
- Coolness/ Innovation
- Maturity
- Commercial success/ number of users
The first comment to make is that coolness and maturity are often inversely correlated. What used to be hot is now ho-hum, while the more innovative applications just out the door haven't had the time to become mature or gain commercial success. That means some extremely cool and promising applications such as Outback Online, Particls, Vquence, or even SmoothBudget (ranked 59) are outside the top tier on the list, not because they aren't very interesting and exciting, but because they are in alpha or beta, and so don't yet score well on the maturity and commercial success factors. Hopefully that will rapidly change. In other words, you can still find some very interesting early stage applications further down on this list, so please don't just look at the top.
Omnidrive garners the top ranking on the list by being both extremely cool (particularly in how it is shifting to become a highly diverse, deeply integrated online utility), while also being a real success story in its profile and user base.
Another issue is what makes an application qualify as Australian. In almost all cases the technology or key executives behind the listed applications have emerged from Australia, though in some cases the companies have since migrated overseas. There are some top-notch companies such as Eurekster that have some Australian capital behind them. However in this case the original technology came out of New Zealand, and it is now largely a US company, so it doesn't feature on the list.
An interesting feature of the list is that few Australian Web 2.0 companies have been acquired over the last years, making it a considerably less dynamic space than in some other countries. Exceptions include Where 2 Technologies being bought by Google in October 2004, Massive by Microsoft one year ago, and Zookoda by Payperpost a month ago. The acquisition landscape seems likely to change, with most of the major Australian-based media and technology companies currently sniffing around for interesting online ventures, however Australian-based companies find it harder to get the visibility for international trade buyers. As far as I'm aware fewer than 20 per cent of the companies on the list have significant presence or deep connections into the US or other major overseas markets.
Many of the applications on the list are at a fairly early stage in their development, indicating that the field is rapidly heating up and there is substantial development and innovation going on. However, even though many newcomers look like solid and interesting applications, they are entering a crowded marketplace. Some of the applications are clearly being created in developers' spare time, with the absence of any names indicating they don't want their day-job employers knowing they are up to other things on the side. A number of services that were available a year ago have now disappeared.
Of course many will disagree on the highly subjective rankings. I encourage your comments on the companies, rankings, and any companies not included. There were many more applications we're aware of that didn't make the list. Some are very early-stage or have little uptake. Others are interesting applications that do not qualify as Web 2.0. Most simple search, sales, and B2B or B2C intermediaries don't make the cut. No doubt we've missed companies that should be on the list - so please let us know!
Click here to view the Top 60 List (Ed: unfortunately the table killed my stylesheet)
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Glad to be included in the top 60, although I'm not sure we've done enough to be in the top 10.
My first 8 of those who have actually got some good results;
Atlassian
The Podcast Network
Remember the Milk
Bluepulse
Gnoos
Minti
Wikia
Booking Angel
Definitely think the momentum of dev in Australia is great and it's getting close to being big enough to be self-perpetuating. Keep it comin.
Posted by: Mick Liubinskas | May 29, 2007 2:16 AM
Great job Ross, putting a list together like that is always hard, but I think you have done a fair job.
At the end of the day it showcases the great diversity and originality that is coming out of Australia. I should point out that given Perth's population, we are pretty well represented here as well :)
Posted by: Bronwen Clune | May 29, 2007 2:57 AM
What about Mecanbe.com? Australian AND purposeful!
Posted by: adrian | May 29, 2007 3:37 AM
have a look at menulog.com.au - another player in the restaurant booking business
Posted by: Tim | May 29, 2007 3:52 AM
Thanks Mick, Bronwen - yes momentum is definitely excellent after the scene being rather thin for too long... Always good to get other perspectives on what's out there and interesting, so hopefully these companies will start getting more visibility.
Adrian, Mecanbe is #60 - haven't heard of any developments on this one for a *long* time but look forward to it being launched.
Will check out menulog - thanks Tim!
Posted by: Ross Dawson | May 29, 2007 4:04 AM
Thanks for that Ross - it is an honor to be among such great company.
Posted by: Chris Saad | May 29, 2007 4:08 AM
Ross,
Thanks for including us at the Powerhouse Museum so high up in the rankings - especially as we seem to be the only public sector/government project to be listed!
I'm excited to see so many other exciting projects so close to home.
Posted by: Seb Chan | May 29, 2007 4:09 AM
Hi Ross
Thanks for the inclusion of dLook.
http://plugger.com.au looks like an interesting site to watch.
Posted by: Meg | May 29, 2007 6:06 AM
As others have said, great work Ross, and thanks very much for including Scouta in a list full of fabulous companies.
Posted by: Richard Giles | May 29, 2007 6:11 AM
Great work Ross.
And I'm really pleased to see this kind of depth of development by aussies. Good stuff guys! Keep it up.
Posted by: Martin Wells | May 29, 2007 7:29 AM
One other thing: I'm not sure "Claims to be the largest commercial wiki, with over 3,000 clients globally." is correct for omnidrive. Maybe some confusing with Atlassian?
Posted by: Martin Wells | May 29, 2007 7:33 AM
Thanks for making the list Ross and including Find It. It's instructive and encouraging.
Posted by: mark fletcher | May 29, 2007 7:58 AM
Awww... folks, my fragile ego has been dealt a severe blow. TheBroth.com isn't on that list! ;-)
I'm actually writing this from San Francisco right now - can't wait get out of the cold and back to Perth! :)
Posted by: Markus Weichselbaum | May 29, 2007 10:55 AM
Ross,
Thanks for mentioning Yoick's Project Outback -- updated url for the project is at: http://www.yoick.com/outback/
Posted by: Randal Leeb-du Toit | May 29, 2007 2:53 PM
Nice list, very interesting but what about WriteToMyBlog or Ripple.org out of Melbourne?
Posted by: Mark | May 29, 2007 4:45 PM
Agree that Gnoos is a great idea, but every time I try to search there it times out on me (and I've tried a fair few times) - should probably take uptime into account as well...
Posted by: Yoki | May 29, 2007 4:56 PM
Thanks for the name check for vquence, Ross.
Sorry I am going to miss the event next week, but Silvia will be there. I will be in SF doing client and VC calls - as one does!
Posted by: Chris Gilbey | May 29, 2007 5:43 PM
Speaking of Aussie startups - anyone from Sydney involved in the Tech Startup community that is interested in having a chat with other other people trying to put the Sydney Tech scene on the map might want to pop into the Sydney Open Coffee Club
Check out the details here - http://entrepreneur.meetup.com/1136/
Posted by: KH | May 29, 2007 5:49 PM
Ross,
Brilliant idea. I spend most of my online time in a North-American-centric world. Without denigrating all the good things about participating in the web world at large, I must confess that it will be refreshing to link in to more Aussie conversations and bright ideas.
Thanks for putting such effort into this.
Posted by: Barbara Thomas | May 29, 2007 6:52 PM
Hi Ross,
Many thanks for mentioning Rave About It - it is an honour to be amongst the really impressive line-up of start-ups that you have listed!
Cheers,
Mark
Posted by: Mark R | May 29, 2007 6:56 PM
Great list Ross, It would be interesting to do a Top 60 - 12 months on and see where everyone's gone, and who the newcomers are.
Oh and plugger.com.au, fantastic!! Definitely should be on the list.
Posted by: Nic Hodges | May 29, 2007 8:46 PM
Why would omnidrive be the top one while still a lot of people complaint about their service, and also refund which promise is delay and delay again.
User comment on the forum of omnidrive
"it is now March 7 2007 and i have still not received my refund, and i have been trying for over a month. At this point this is all a joke right, because a company like this that says "You will get a refund in couple of days time" and nothing comes has got to be a joke.
If you guys really need my $40 that bad you can have it. "
""Omnidrive is an online storage platform that allows you to store your files online and access them from anywhere with the speed of desktop storage."
I think you need to clarify this statement on your homepage to ensure people realize what you're really doing is making a duplicate of their files on their C: drive and that's why you have the speed of desktop storage. "
For more information , please follow the below link
http://forum.omnidrive.com/topic/137
Posted by: moming2k | May 29, 2007 8:58 PM
Hi Ross,
Thanks for placing Minti 5th in your list.
It's a great honor.
Cheers
Clay
Posted by: Clay Cook | May 29, 2007 10:21 PM
About time someone did this. Australian developers are up there with the best. A lot of work done here - big kudos to you Ross.
http://www.plugger.com.au looks only brand new but has definite potential. We need more Aussie centric social sites!
Posted by: Jonathon Edwards | May 29, 2007 10:52 PM
Thanks all for the feedback, and Tim, Markus, Mark, Nic, Jonathon for the pointers to quality apps I missed. Often good stuff doesn't get the visibility it deserves - this list is as far as I'm aware the most comprehensive survey of this space so far, but it certainly doesn't surprise me there are gaps.
Absolutely Nic, as soon as this was up it occurred to me that this should be done annually - I hope and expect that the standard required to make the top 60 will be a lot more intense in a year! Richard and I will diarize this for next year. Please continue to add in the comments interesting companies I missed in this pass.
Martin - absolutely right - an editing mistake from me which has been corrected in the current version of the doc.
Posted by: Ross Dawson | May 30, 2007 2:12 AM
It's a great idea to put the list together - this is the first I've stumbled across for oz anyway.
A couple of the programmers at work put this site together in their spare time - mashes up premier league football, blogs, news, photos and video's - don't know how much traffic they are getting but though it might be of interest...
Posted by: Dylan C | May 30, 2007 5:18 AM
I'll keep telling myself that Chinswing (www.chinswing.com) was number 61... ;)
Dean.
(founder/creator of Melbourne-based Chinswing)
Posted by: Dean | May 30, 2007 5:20 AM
sorry the link didn't make it in http://www.squadinfo.com
Posted by: Dylan C | May 30, 2007 5:25 AM
It was great to see http://www.suburbview.com make the list. In appreciation I have made reference to this on the front page.
Thank you very much,
Mark
Posted by: Mark | May 30, 2007 4:47 PM
Great list, I wish this had been published a year ago when I was fruitlessly searching for solid Aussie startups!
Hate to plug my own, but http://www.noodleinvite.com.au and http://www.fillthedams.com.au are two recently launched sites
Posted by: Andy | May 30, 2007 8:03 PM
Thanks for all the additions everyone! There are some very interesting apps that would have made the list if I had been aware of them. Am fleshing out the master list so the next version of this has fewer gaps.
Have also found another one in pre-beta from the very talented guys at Anecdote:
http://www.zahmoo.com/
Posted by: Ross Dawson | May 31, 2007 2:33 PM
For those in Melbourne, MODM (Melbourne's Online Digital Media) is meeting on the first Thursday of every month.
The next one is on June 7th. http://www.modm.info
Check out the details form MODM #2 here -
http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/187148/
Posted by: scientaestubique | June 1, 2007 6:44 AM
Looks like you forgot Faces.com and Tunefeed.com built in Brisbane Australia, operates from the USA.
Posted by: jonathan | June 2, 2007 7:28 PM
Rememberthemilk is the class leader and does it all - Ajaxian, multilanguage, widgets, tag visualization, great api, *free* (I may be cutting the list short here, it's amazing)
World class, indispensable. Love it. N√∫mero Um.
Dave in Brazil
Posted by: DaveKebab | June 4, 2007 10:54 AM
Thanks for mentioning Yoick's Project Outback !
Posted by: –ö–æ–¥—ã –≥–æ—Ä–æ–¥–æ–≤ | June 9, 2007 2:08 AM
Why did we need a top 60? A top 20 perhaps would be adequate?
Some of the top 60 are great. However such listings as Buttonator I have to question (sorry to the developers as I'm sure they weren't asking to be included).
Using the points outlined:
* Web 2.0 characteristics
* Coolness/ Innovation
* Maturity
* Commercial success/ number of users
I really have to struggle to see how it fits.
Coolness and innovation - people were making buttons on the fly 5 years ago, they just didn't have gradients. Oh, and CSS buttons anybody???
Commercial success - does it really equate to the number of users? It's about the bottom line. Sure, the number of users are important, but this seems like a fairly limited application without much scope for development at this stage - so I would also question the maturity of such a development. Perhaps it will form a suite of graphical apps going forward?
Web 2.0 characteristics - is there a community, a network for discussion? Seems a bit lacking to me. Just seems to be able to produce an image.
Oh, and for a button manufacturer to be advocating the use of 'click me'? Please, spare me.
Anyway, I'm sure there's plenty of others in our top 60 that I personally don't feel are worthy at this stage, I've certainly not had time to digest them all. However, they're there for now, so good on them. The panel involved here obviously thought they were useful.
Posted by: Benn Glazier | June 11, 2007 12:11 AM