Well, definitely not loyalty! Have a look at Facebook, they are still using Google Maps in the Facebook Events app (which is built by Facebook). When Microsoft paid $240m for less than 2% of Facebook, I’m pretty sure they missed that part in the fine print, or else Facebook would be using Live Maps!
Ok, so now that the word is out – let’s see how long it takes for Facebook to switch to Microsoft Live Maps! Remember, you heard it here first!
I often find that in the new Web 2.0 world of “social media” and “communities”, that there are some very flaky business models. I was quite impressed to come across Global Scholar today. Not only are they proposing a very valuable community offering, but they’re also finding a way to monetize it from the early stages – which sometimes isn’t always a good idea. However, what they’re doing is pushing the idea of actually paying for the experience – even if it’s just $1 for the first hour, in order to get people into the idea that not everything online will be free in the future (VC money does run out at some point, and sustainable business models need to be in place by then!).
Global Scholar offers:
* all tutoring occurs on online via chat/audio/whiteboard/curriculum sharing
* all tutoring sessions are recorded and archived with a “playback” option, for students/parents to review
* tutors set their own prices/courses/hours of operation
* GlobalScholar.com background checks every tutor (criminal + education) and trains them on the site
* All tutors need to have a minimum four-year degree
* Users can leave ratings/reviews for tutors
They’re creating a community that has value for all parties – and are charging for it, as it will most definitely have value for a lot of students and parents.
There was quite an interesting article on ReadWriteWeb recently on The Danger of Free, which I highly recommend reading – and which actually inspired this post as I was very comforted to see “Web 2.0″ companies trying to charge for their services. I know… it sounds rich from a guy that’s giving away free websites 
but at least we have a long term plan
I’ve really been busy this past month so apologies for the light posting – from closing the recent SynthaSite deal to all the paperwork involved with moving to the US West Coast – it’s been one very busy month. I thought I’d just write a piece and give feedback on how SynthaSite has been doing and what our users are up to!
I’m actually thrilled by the level of interest that SynthaSite has been receiving (and thanks to all my fellow bloggers for their support!). We have signed up over 11,000 users this year, who have produced thousands of websites – with the most unique and unimaginable user generated content.
Here are some of the thousands of sites that our users have created so far :
SAT Bootcamp (Using 3rd party forms creatively to capture leads)
Team69Racing (Someone from my hometown )
Spay Pet (Using Google AdSense)
Parallels vs Bootcamp (Using some nifty HTML to create tables)
Amazon Webstore (using syndicated content from Amazon)
Carbo Rocket (E-Commerce enabled using PayPal)
African Dream Holidays (Microsite for African Dream Holidays, an incuBeta company)
We’re stunned by the ingenuity of our user base – we haven’t even gotten out the gates yet, relatively speaking, and people are really testing the depths of our platform! This is really great to see – and it makes all the hard work very much worth it!
User Generated Content (UGC) is a pivotal part of Web 2.0 in that it demonstrates how users are participating and having a voice on the web. I’m really excited about the year ahead, and I’m looking forward at demonstrating the power of SynthaSite as we open it up to a world of users that have a need for a website, but never wanted to pay for hosting, domains, etc.
Interestingly enough – 5 out of the top 10 countries that we have users in, are from emerging markets (BRICS – Brazil, Russia, India, China & South Africa) – which points to how starved these countries are for free Internet services such as hosting (in South Africa – bandwidth and hosting is frighteningly expensive). If you think of the volumes of users from these countries, and couple that with the fact that high costs of Internet is actually holding back UGC on platforms such as YouTube, etc – over time, as prices drop, the Internet is going to explode – what you’re seeing today is just the beginning!
Nope, not the chocolate (South African joke). TechCrunch is having the inaugural “Crunchies” awards and you can nominate for your favorite Web 2.0 Startup.
Awards like these certainly help give startup companies more exposure – especially ones that deserve and need it – so nominate away!
I found this on TechCrunch today – and I just had to share it!
Sad thing is that most of those 23 year old CEO’s & CTO’s won’t even know who first wrote and sang the background song
Update (15 Dec): YouTube video removed (long story) – replaced with Daily Motion video.
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