Web 2.0 and Business Models

«In the Web 1.0, the user was consuming content created by someone else. In Web 2.0, the content is created by the user. 1.0 is an "architecture of consumption," and read-only," the Web 2.0 is "architecture of participation,". On the old Web, the user is the audience, in the new Web, the user is participant.» O'Reilly

With this change of positions, regular user is given the power to interact, to decide what he will, or not, talk about…and recommend. And this “free advertising” is priceless. And big companies know it.

As the marketing professional Evelyn Rodriguez says in her weblog:

"You want to know where the big money is coming from on the Internet nowadays? Look in the mirror. Online businesses are increasingly finding revenue in capturing content from users like you. Companies are making money by providing tools and services that let you write stuff, take pictures, organize your information, and publish it to the Web."

Acording to her, examples of this are: ”blogs and the companies that make the software and services to publish blogs; photo-sharing services like Flickr, community-bookmarking services like del.icio.us online organization services like Backpack, and social-networking services like LinkedIn and Orkut.”

This change brought some important changes to the way Business Models are seen. According to Peter Rip, Web 2.0 needs a 2.0 Business Model. To this author, Micropayments, Shared Value and New Revenue Networks are the concepts to be know and be used.