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• Most of the companies tracked are typical Internet stocks (Google, Ebay, Yahoo….). These are companies that have built there business over many years and proven their model. Counting them as Web 2.0 is therefore not only wrong, it also gives the impression that they are companies that have recently reinvented themselves or substantially changed their model due to this elusive “Web 2.0″ thing. While there are a few companies in the index that may possibly be called Web 2.0 such as Mixi (check this great post on Internet in Japan if you haven’t heard of them), the index is clearly dominated by “traditional” Internet players from a market cap perspective.
• I have generally rejected the notion that Web 2.0 is the same as Bubble 2.0. While there may be hype around certain Internet companies, we are far away from the tidal wave that sucked in billions of public money across the Internet and telco sectors. Right now, we see a limited set of acquirers (mostly Google, Yahoo, News Corp etc) buying other private companies in the Internet sector, and there is no flurry of large-scale IPOs of money burning companies. In fact, some Internet stocks like Yahoo (chart) and Ebay (chart) have not performed too well recently. I am a little afraid that instrumentalizing Web 2.0 to creating broad public attention at the stock market may start another run for Internet stocks for the wrong reasons. We certainly are not there yet, but stuff like this isn’t helping.

It feels to me like some people who have completely shunned the Internet for the last few years are now calling everything Internet “web 2.0″ just because it’s different from what existed in 2000 – however, the vast majority of publicly traded Internet companies has undergone a constant, evolutionary development over the last years rather than suddenly reappearing as part of a big bang called Web 2.0. Let’s make sure that the start-ups emerging today get a fair chance to prove themselves rather than confronting them with disproportionate expectations or hype – the vast majority of entrepreneurs I meet is quite down to earth and very diligent about how they build their business in a capital efficient manner, and I think that’s a tremendously positive change from 1999.