Web 2.0 Expo Gears Up in San Francisco

April 21, 2008

The Web 2.0 Expo is gearing up in San Francisco while enterprise spending on Web 2.0 technologies is predicted to surge over the next five years, growing 43 percent each year to reach $4.6 billion globally by 2013. A five-year Forrester forecast includes a breakdown of future business spending on technologies such as social networking, RSS, blogs, wikis, mashups, podcasting, and widgets, as well as an analysis of enterprise Web 2.0 spending across North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific.

Forrester believes that Web 2.0 technologies represent a fundamentally new way to connect with customers and prospects and harness the collaborative power of employees. Large enterprises such as General Motors, McDonald’s, Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance, and Wells Fargo have all made heavy use of these tools, and 56 percent of North American and European enterprises consider Web 2.0 to be a priority in 2008 according to a recent Forrester survey.

“Software firms can make money selling enterprise Web 2.0 software, but it will not be an easy road to hundred-million-dollar run rates,” said Forrester Research Analyst G. Oliver Young. “The market for enterprise Web 2.0 tools will be defined by commoditization, eroding prices, and incorporation into enterprise collaboration software over the next five years. It will eventually disappear into the fabric of the enterprise, despite the major effects the technology will have on how businesses market their products and optimize their workforces.”

The key question for software firms is who pays for Web 2.0 in the enterprise? Three challenges face vendors: IT shops are wary of what they perceive as insecure, consumer-grade technology; ad-supported Web 2.0 tools on the consumer side have set “free” as a starting point; and Web 2.0 technologies enter a crowded space dominated by legacy software investments.

Currently, large businesses are spending more on employee collaboration tools than customer-facing Web 2.0 technologies, but Forrester expects that trend to reverse by next year. By 2013, investment in customer-facing Web 2.0 technology will dwarf spending on internal collaboration software by nearly a billion dollars.

“Social Computing and Web 2.0 marketing are still in their infancy; and in general, the market is still in an experimentation phase,” said Young. “In the long run, the effect of Web 2.0 will be enormous. But what may prove to be of more value to vendors will be the skills of running a successful software-as-a-service (SaaS) business. For the vendors that do it well, disaggregating expertise about the medium from Web 2.0 content is likely to provide far more value than wikis and blogs ever did.”

"Web 2.0 Expo is where we see the future of the Web, and the companies making announcements here next week are building that future," said Jennifer Pahlka, Web 2.0 Expo General Manager and Co-Chair. "Attendees will be treated to first hand access to these companies and the chance to discuss the significance of all these announcements in a peer-to-peer atmosphere."

A snapshot of companies exhibiting at the Web 2.0 Expo follows:

AirSet unveils a new paradigm for computing in the cloud. With this launch, AirSet provides a host of new features that will allow you to seamlessly share, organize, and manage your personal and professional lives on any computer, anywhere you want.

BigString will unveil a new messaging application that compliments its vast lines of products that focus on its patent-pending recallable, self-destructing messaging systems.

Fresh off the Microsoft National Design Challenge win, Web 2.0 platinum sponsor Cynergy will unveil details of new client engagements, strategic partnerships and product launches showcasing the breadth of Cynergy's presence in the global market.

Curl will be announcing the beta release of Curl Nitro, the code name for an extension of the Curl Rich Internet Application platform which offers enhanced desktop capabilities required by today's enterprises.

DreamFace Interactive and Twinsoft combine technologies to provide robust, end-to-end Enterprise Mashups. DreamFace Interactive announces the integration of their next generation Web 2.0 Framework with Twinsoft's
Convertigo Enterprise Mashup Server bringing Web 2.0 innovation like Client Side Integration, Interactive Data Widgets, Personalization and Sharing to the modernization of legacy applications.

Jaduka introduces its Transaction Processing Services Platform for mobile media and software providers. Digital publishers can integrate end-to-end merchandising, inventory, POSA, and account management using Jaduka's API. Jaduka also showcases Jaduka Labs and its Enterprise Solutions Platform, enabling developers to create communications-enabled business applications that improve online customer experience and business
processes.

Kirix releases of a new "data browser" called Strata, a fusion of a Web browser and a built-in relational database. Whether digging through Web logs or mashing up Web data, Strata is an exceptional tool for working with data on or around the Web

Lithium Technologies makes Kudos available. It is a content rating system that creates social networks through members' evaluation of community content. Users signal their approval with a single click, and the platform tracks the resulting social graph, highlighting top content, top authors, and the relationships that emerge among community members.

LiquidApps starts flowing. It is a way to rapidly assemble powerful enterprise-scale applications and mashups for any device, any platform. Today's knowledge workers need the flexibility promised by Web services and SOA. LiquidApps delivers on the promise with no run-time licenses or proprietary libraries, releasing your information to any device, any platform.

LongJump, a platform for highly customizable, interconnected on-demand business applications, will announce a partnership with a large, global distributor that will serve to expand its footprint into other vertical markets and will issue an announcement that will be of keen interest to developers and consultants.

magnify360 unveils an entire UI update and added capabilities of the magnify360 Platform. The company will also publish a case study on client Continental's search advertising optimization. Results include 90% lead volume lift in four months and $1.5M in projected incremental annual revenue.

Morfik launches WebOS AppsBuilder -- the complete solution that lets you design, build and deploy Ajax applications through a single, ultra-modern, visual environment. Taking a Web project from conception to production has never been easier. Morfik is there to help you, every step of the way.

Octopz advanced online collaboration software, for creative professionals working with digital media, releases its secure and extensible collaboration platform that will enable synchronous online co-creation and support for new media formats -- dramatically improving productivity and workflow.

Oosah announces a Web-based platform for organizing and sharing photos, videos, and music. Through Oosah, consumers can centralize management of media content from multiple Web sites, including social networking, and
photo and video hosting sites. Developers can also use Oosah to create branded rich media widgets.

To create new ways for people to illustrate and share their lives online and off, Photobucket -- the world's largest photo and video site -- will introduce new resources for the developer community.

Profy announces the public launch of its one-stop Web platform for all things blogging. The Profy solution provides a single point of comprehensive access to every creative tool a blogger could want and leverages the social aspect of blogging.

Symphoniq will unveil TrueView 2.0. TrueView harnesses the real user experience and provides the insight organizations need to optimize their infrastructure and address new performance challenges created by SOA, SaaS, Web services and Web 2.0.

Truviso announces that Technorati, portal to the world's blogs, will use Truviso's powerful analytic and categorization technology to analyze and graphically display the true "pulse" of the blogosphere. By using the
Truviso system, visitors to Technorati can watch as ideas wax and wane, and see changes as they occur.

Vyew will announce Vyew 3.0 and Vyew Appliance. Vyew 3.0 improves Web conferencing and visual collaboration with contextual discussions, voice notes, Webcam support, an API and other enhancements. Vyew Appliance is a
server appliance for organizations requiring optimal security for Web conferencing, remote training and visual collaboration.

Xbosoft is China's largest outsourcing company focused only on QA software testing. Its XBO ONE, XBO MachONE, and XBO CommONE technologies are easily accessible in a fixed price QuickRelease package, designed to meet contemporary Web 2.0 testing challenges and get your applications to market faster.

Zude's state-of-the-art social computing platform, which provides users an unprecedented level of freedom and design creativity, is partnering with three one-of-a-kind companies: Widgetbox for 44 thousand unique widgets, Myxer for user-generated direct-to-mobile ringtones, videos, and wallpapers, and ShopIt for personalized storefronts.

A forum for creativity, engineering, and innovation, Web 2.0 Expo San Francisco includes a multi-track conference, an "unconference" program called Web2Open, a major tradeshow, and many networking events. Web 2.0 Expo will spotlight a number of keynotes, including Marc Andreesen, Max Levchin and Johnathan Schwartz, to name a few.