Archive of thenextweb.com
Written on 24th April 2009
15 COMMENTS 
Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten, Serial Internet Entrepreneur
Andrew Keen says that blogs are dead.
Matt Mullenweg says that blogging is only getting bigger.
Of course, they are both wrong.
The ways to promote yourself online are increasing every year. Once upon a time all we had was homepages with hard to remember urls at free hosting services which plastered our pages with bright and animated ads. We used the Blink tag, lots of animated gifs and some text. The most used sentence, no doubt, was “Under Construction”.
After that we evolved and started blogging. No more blinking eyecandy but nicely designed Themes with lots of useful widgets in the sidebar. And Google ads so we could earn some money. We wrote 2 posts a day in the first week, 1 posts a day in the second week then 1 post in the next month and then we simply stopped.
Now we have Facebook, Linkedin and MySpace pofiles, a personal and business blog, Delicious and StumbleUpOn tagged links collections and a Twitter and Flickr account.
I remember when I blogged a lot on my personal blog I used to start with a simple idea (one that would probably fit in 140 characters) and sit down to write a blog post about it. I wrote an introduction, 3 examples and a conclusion. Then I added an illustration, some tags and a few hyperlinks and published. That generally took an hour.
Now I just tweet the simple idea I started out with and I’m done.
So, are blogs dead? No, of course not. Blogs are maturing and starting to follow basic economic principles where wealth (visitors, readers, audience) is unequally distributed. In the year 2000 the richest 1% of adults alone own 40% of global assets. That is how wealth is distributed in our world. When blogging started to hype the general idea was that everybody could make money from his or her blog and have an audience. Wealth (our readers) would be equally distributed.
In reality it turns out that most blogs have no more than 10 followers a month. In terms of audience these are the worlds poor. The bottom 50% of the world owns barely 1% of global wealth. Blogs are no exception to this unfortunate fact. We were hoping that the Lorenz Curve (the 80/20 rule) wouldn’t apply to blogging.
We now know it does.
On Twitter or Facebook these numbers work differently. If you have a Twitter accunt with 100 followers you might be perfectly happy with that. There is no need to make money on Twitter or get a huge following. A few interested listeners can make the whole experience worthwhile.
All of this leads to a huge shift from blogging to Twitter. Or to Microblogging in general. Matt Mullenweg told the audience at The Next Web Conference that in his experience blogging was actually growing. What he probably meant is that the top bloggers are receiving more visitors because Twitter and Facebook make sharing links easier.
I have no doubt however that a lot of people who would have started a blog 2 years ago are now building their profiles on LinkedIn and Facebook or simply sticking to Twitter.
Anyone who says that blogging is dead has little or no sense of history. New technologies never ‘kill’ their predecessors. Television didn’t kill Radio and the Internet didn’t kill the Television. They all get a share of our attention and find their own audiences.
Blogs are dead?
No, The rumors of bloggings death have been greatly exaggerated…
Written on 12th April 2009
2 COMMENTS
Zee, Editor in Chief at The Next Web, Principal at WeDoCreative.
Blogger Mike Morgan started a blog just a few week ago titled “Info, Comments, Opinions and Facts about Goldman Sachs” at GoldmanSachs666.com.
In that time Morgan, a registered investment adviser, has written a number of posts related to Goldman Sachs, other banks and the banking industry as a whole.
On April 8th, the bank instructed Chadbourne & Park to contact Morgan with a cease and desist order (viewable here), making clear that legal action would be taken if he didn’t shut down the site immediately – the same old stuff really.
Not without a fight
Investment banker Morgan has made clear he isn’t disappearing any time soon. He points out that the site meets all legal requirements and clearly states on the header of the homepage that he isn’t affiliated with Goldman Sachs at any level.
He makes clear, again on the homepage:
“Yes, I am short Goldman Sachs stock. I believe this company is evil and should not exist. We need to begin to break up companies that have as much control over world finances as Goldman Sachs.”
(Hence, the 666 in the blog’s domain name.)
A section of his blog is specifically devoted to the matter, where he accepts that he is likely to end up in court. Morgan notes, should the blog be shut down, he has a number of other domain names registered that he plans to make use of.
Written on 1st April 2009
1 COMMENT
Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten, Serial Internet Entrepreneur
At all the previous Next Web Conferences we always organized networking events for attending investors, journalists/bloggers and start-ups. These people are attending in huge numbers and are all interested in meeting each other. Instead of relying on chance we decided to actively introduce them to each other which has lead to lots of lasting relationships, articles and funding rounds.
This year we are hosting a speedpitching session on Friday morning. If you are attending the conference and have a start-up, invest in companies or want to report on interesting companies sign up here:
Press sign-up:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?key=pSAeyS-eQG9M4zrcNIpq4Qg&hl=en
VC sign-up:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?key=pSAeyS-eQG9PbAeAuFvfBBw&hl=en
Startup sign-up:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?key=pSAeyS-eQG9N0SjI4dVqBRA&hl=en
We will actively introduce people to one another using the conference business network (powered by ConfNetwork, to connect you before the conference so you can meet up with potential investors in advance.
See you at the conference right?!
Written on 9th February 2009
10 COMMENTS
Ayelet Noff, Next Web WebTipr Israel
With so much information on the internet today and the content continuously growing, it can be very difficult to discover an online media site where your voice can be heard. Uncovering a place where you can make a difference and have an influence is even more difficult. A new Israeli start-up, BloggersBase.com hopes to fill that void. This unique blogging platform is an online citizen journalism magazine that is powered by its readers. Here, readers and bloggers alike can discover top quality content while simultaneously influencing the magazine.
BloggersBase.com is a competition-based content discovery platform where bloggers submit content on a variety of topics, and based on readers’ ratings, the highest quality content is discovered and featured on the site. The magazine consists of multi-authored blogs, each on a different subject. There are four main topics categories: Entertainment, Technology, Lifestyle and World Affairs, containing together ten different blogs. Based on reader ratings and responses, the highest quality content is discovered and featured on the site. The rating system is not the standard vote “up or down/yes or no” as seen on other social networks such as Digg or Mixx, but rather is on a scale of 1-10 and is based on a variety of criteria from professionalism and relevance to writing style and creativity. The more accurately you rate, the higher your influence becomes in deciding which content makes it to the main blog. This reader influence is one of the things that make BloggersBase such a unique platform.
The rating system applies to more than just the actual posts, but to the users as well. When you first register for BloggersBase, you are given a title as a reader and as a blogger. As a blogger, you begin as a Newbie and work your way up the scale to Scribe, Penman, Composer, Essayist, Columnist, Author, Wordsmith and eventually Scholar. Your rank is determined by the number of posts you have submitted, their scores, and the responses generated from these posts. As a reader, you start off as a Subscriber. In the beginning you aim to match the crowd’s opinion and as your ratings become more accurate, you gain influence and begin to move up the reader scale to Appraiser, Commentator, Reviewer, Critic, Analyst, Trend-Setter, Sage and Oracle.
Another distinctive quality about BloggersBase.com is the ongoing competition across all categories. This competition enables bloggers to take advantage of reaching their target audience while also earning the chance to receive money and maximum exposure for their blog. To be eligible for the competition, bloggers submit posts a.k.a. “Nuggets” into the “Goldmine”. At the end of each competition time slot, the top bloggers in each topic earn the opportunity to co-author the main blog for their category, resulting in added exposure and respect. In addition, the top two bloggers in each topic receive special monetary prizes and have the privilege to co-author the main blog for the following week and continue competing.
Although BloggersBase is a new platform, it seems to have great potential for becoming a reliable source for quality content which it’s bringing to the web in an exciting and different way, giving power and influence to its readers as well as exposure and prizes to its bloggers. To read some of the highest rated and most viewed posts on BloggersBase visit the links below:
Woman, Are you still touching yourself for Cancer?
Why You Should Turn to Social Media During this Economic Crisis
The Four Stages of Twitter
Inauguration: Left behind, but still Thrilled
Written on 13th November 2008
3 COMMENTS
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
I’m touring around China with bloggers. I hope to give you as many updates as possible about this land of endless opportunities. Thanks to Spil Games for sponsoring me.
During this China 2.0 week, a rather large group of Beijing bloggers gathered in the Blue Frog, an American haven in China’s capital with excellent wifi. During a square (as in not round) table discussion about business 2.0 and outsourcing, tweets were pumped onto the web. The hashtag “china20” even ranked no. 1 trending topic at some point. The part of this discussion which interested me the most was the annoyance of Chinese bloggers about us, the western ones. The issue: we don’t paint a gray picture of China.
“Bloggers who speak little or no Chinese do lousy research”, complained Brendan O’Kane. “They find one English-writing blogger from China and project his beliefs and writings on all Chinese bloggers. Hence our image of being online nationalists”.
Richard from Peking Duck agrees with Brendan, but also admits he used to do the same when he started blogging back in 2002. “My blog used to be a wealth of misconceptions, a mess full of prejudice. Now I know better.”
“When my favorite bloggers from abroad address China, even the most liberal ones paint a black and white picture,” said Richard, concerning reports about human rights and censorship.” It’s actually pervasive in all western media”.
Brendan O’Kane
After hearing these complaints, I asked the two gentleman how we could paint a gray picture of the country they reside in. “Read lots of blogs about China to broaden your view”, said Brendan. “Try Fool’s Mountain“. Richard added that Peter Hessler from The New Yorker also writes interesting pieces about China.
I’d like to add that Brendan’s and Richard’s blog are also worth reading. They both have a sharp pen and use it to publicize their refreshing thoughts.
Photo credits: CN Reviews
Written on 30th October 2008
6 COMMENTS
Mircea Goia, Next Web US Webtipr
The crazy rush to free traffic for bloggers promised by the Blogrush network had came to an end without leaving the beta stage, unfortunately. The founder, John Reese, has closed the doors of the one year (or so) old company.
As he stated on the website’s frontpage “the service spread like wildfire all over the Web”. I don’t know if the bad economy or something else made them close the doors but Blogrush wasn’t monetized at all, not even with advertising. How did they survive? By losing a small fortune, the founder said. Concentrating on acquiring users and worrying about monetizing later? Well, I guess that was the mantra of almost every Web 2.0 startup which in this economy meltdown doesn’t cut it anymore.
The blogs from the network were scrutinized before getting accepted in the network (disclosure: my personal blog was rejected sometime ago) so they wanted to ensure the highest quality of it. It seems they have made some mistakes (not accepting my personal blog was one :)…ok,ok, I am joking) starting from selecting blogs, continuing with security issues and lower clickthrough rates, not to mention abusive users who tried to game the system (I don’t think there is a system which users won’t try to game).
The blogs then had to install a widget like this one on the right. 
The concept looks very much like the free banner exchange concept in the ’90s (and which, by the way, was a failure – I personally tried them at that time).
What is surprising is that the founder doesn’t want to sell the service although he got several offers. Why? That’s a mystery and he won’t tell it, of course. I don’t see the point of not selling to somebody who can keep the service running and maybe deal with all the problems it had. If you care about your users then you find ways to keep the service alive, even if that means selling. Or, at least you recover some of the lost fortune, if nothing else.
We wish you more luck in your future endeavours, John!
Written on 21st October 2008
12 COMMENTS
Ayelet Noff, Next Web WebTipr Israel
In these difficult economic times, it is important for all companies to become more cost-efficient. One of the ways you can lower your marketing costs is by turning to social media marketing (in case you’re not doing that already). Promoting your brand on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter doesn’t cost you anything (except for the salary of the person who’s doing the job) and is increasingly viewed as the best way to market your product to your target audience. Here’s a list of 35+ companies that are using social media to carry out their brand message, amongst them, Coca Cola, Cisco, Intel, Dell, etc.
Where’s your social media presence?
According to Phantom CTO, consumers even expect a social media presence from brands:
“The highlights of the 2008 Cone Business in Social Media Study came out recently. The results of the study point to a growing trend in how consumers want to be reached by businesses. The study found that 60% of American consumers use social media and of those more than half interact with businesses on social media websites. 93% of American consumers who use social media expect companies to have a social media presence and 85% of them believe those companies should be interacting with consumers through social media.
Cone Researchers say that the results mean that “Americans are eager to deepen their brand relationships through social media,” explains Mike Hollywood, director of new media for Cone, “it isn’t an intrusion into their lives, but rather a welcome channel for discussion.”
Some social networks statistics
Social networks ARE seen as a welcome channel for discussion by consumers. See below chart from Forrester as well which breaks down interest by age groups (Note: This research was done a few months back and percentages are probably higher by now):
Much like social networks, coverage in the blogosphere is also a great way to get exposure for your brand and targeting those bloggers who would be specifically interested in your product is the secret formula for receiving the exposure you need. Don’t forget that bloggers are opinion leaders and their “say” is a crucial factor determining your product’s success or failure. If you approach the right bloggers that you think would get added value from your product, and you are able to gain their devotion as users and writers, then you have received coverage directly targeted at the right audience, without paying a dime. (more…)
Written on 10th September 2008
1 COMMENT
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Just a reminder on the Wednesday morning that what we, millions of bloggers, do, isn’t that normal in the rest of the world. For many people, blogging whatever you want is an illusion. Like Mohamed Erraji, 29, who wrote in online newspaper Hespress that Morocco had been destroyed by a culture of handing out gifts and privileges by the government. According to him, begging has become a rewarding activity in the north African kingdom.
“It has made the Moroccans a people without dignity, who live by donations and gifts,” Erraji wrote.
The government took this as showing disrespect to the king, which is, according to Morocco’s press code, an offense. So Erraji was jailed on Friday and dragged to court on Monday, where he was sentenced to two years in prison and a hefty fine. He had no defense lawyer and the judgment only took ten minutes.
According to Reuters, Reporters Without Borders said the sentence was “worthy of the most totalitarian states” and demanded Erraji’s liberation. The government officials could not be reached for comment.
So while you and I start another day of blogging freely, somebody lives a captured life because of his writings. Just think about that every once in a while and consider to do a write-up on this as well.
Written on 17th August 2008
5 COMMENTS
Şekip Can Gökalp, Next Web Turkey WebTipr
Wednesday, I was checking Friendfeed to see if anything interesting happened and I saw that elmaaltshift was banned. Fırat Yıldız, the founder of this well known Turkish blog was telling that he was not warned or what so ever. I immediately clicked on the link and saw the famous big red warning “This site is banned due to court decision” For a second, I was also mad but then I thought of a small detail –that I was in Germany and the bans could only effect Turkish Internet users- that made me realize the true nature of this incidence. Fırat was protesting the Turkish government, which has banned a couple of hundred websites last year.
On Wednesday (13.08.2008) the protest got supported by Fırat’s friends, which are more or less the most active crowd in the Turkish blogosphere. Selim Yörük of anafikir.com prepared a simple code for all bloggers and websites to use, which would put the same message on their main pages. In four days, 167 blogs and websites including major blogs and portals such as sinema.com, futuristika.org, burak.com and cisday.org. You can view the full list of the protestors in anafikir.com/sansur. Selim says “Poeple just get used to lose their freedom. This experiment is trying to shock the people by trying to show them how it would be if sites get banned so fast. I think, it increased the awareness of people very well.”
Youtube, Netlog, Slide, Tagged and Alibaba are some of the major sites that were banned over the course of two years. Youtube for example is still banned and cannot be reached from Turkey. There are a zillion ways to get over the ban, but of course this is no excuse. There are also some gags, that are actually quite funny; IMDB.com was also going to be banned because some movie producers thought that IMDB is a source to download DIVX movies. Later on, it came out that they were trying to ban IMBD.com because of a typo. And as far as I know, IMDB was never banned…
Alibaba.com? Why ban an e-commerce platform? Does it damage the Turkish market? Or what about Slide.com? Why would one ever want to ban a presentation-sharing portal? There are many speculations about the reason of these bans. More than often, a court in a quite small town in Turkey will decide if the accused sites should be banned or not.
Is there a solution?
Başak Purut, a Turkish lawyer who specialized in these kind of processes says that “this kind of protests will lead us nowhere, because Turkish politicians absolutely don’t care which sites are banned and why.” He also thinks that the law will get stricter in the future and the only way to solve this issue is to get the attention of the EU, which would maybe talk Turkish politicians into changing the law that regulates the bans.
This is an option, that would solve the problem, but there is another solution for the companies that want to keep their products online in Turkey: Open an office in Turkey. Every company that wishes to get the huge amount of traffic from countries like Turkey, has to deal with the fact that it IS a different country with its own rules. Whether these rules are correct or not, is another discussion topic and it should be clear by now what I think of them, but it is also clear that these rules are not going to change for a while. Youtube was banned 3 or 4 times, and the last one lasted longer then three months (still on by the way). There is something wrong with that… It is a question of importance. How important is it to Youtube, a company of Google that it is down in Turkey for three months? Now there are rumous of a youtube.com.tr, a local version of youtube which will exclude illegal content. Global players have to consider these kind of ‘details’ or they lose markets to smaller local players faster than they can anticipate.
UPDATE: More blogs are starting to talk about this. Check this article on Techcrunch.
The Next Web Blog is closely associated with The Next Web Conference which is held annually in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. At this event speakers from all over the world come together to talk about, and show off, the future of the Web. (More info 
