Who are the people behind successful Web 2.0 apps such as Facebook, MySpace, WordPress, YouTube, etc? What are their milestones to success? And who is Singapore's answer to all these? This slideshow provides a quick overview.

1. Faces & Rewards
behind Web 2.0
7 years that changed the world

2. Bubble 2.0?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_dot-com_bubble
2001-2002: Burst of the first Dot-com bubble on NASDAQ.
2007-2008: Are we witnessing a second Dot-com bubble?
OR are people finally making real money on the Internet?

3. Recognize these Web Entrepreneurs?
● Jimmy Wales
● Dave Sifry
● Tom Anderson
● Evan Williams
● Larry & Sergey
● James Hong
● Joshua Schachter
● Chad Hurley
● Kevin Rose
● Matt Mullenweg
● Mark Zuckerberg

4. Recognize these Web Entrepreneurs?
● Jimmy Wales ● Wikipedia
● Dave Sifry ● Tecnorati
● Tom Anderson ● MySpace
● Evan Williams ● Blogger, Odeo, Twitter
● Larry & Sergey ● Google
● James Hong ● HOT or Not
● Joshua Schachter ● Del.icio.us
● Chad Hurley ● YouTube
● Kevin Rose ● Digg.com
● Matt Mullenweg ● Wordpress
● Mark Zuckerberg ● Facebook

5. ● Position: Free encyclopedia
that anyone can edit.
● 2000: Peer-reviewed Nupedia
● 2001: Larry Sanger moots
idea of using a wiki. Birth of
Wikipedia. Many non-English
Wikipedias launched
● 2002: Bomis funding ends
● 2003: Wikimedia Foundation
set up.
● 2006: Voted one of world's
Jimmy Wales, b. 1966 most influential people - Time
Wikipedia.org ● Feb 08: Alexa: #9
Finance Masters from Auburn
University, University of Alabama
photo from Wikipedia

6. ● Position: Internet search
engine for blogs. Tech version
of literati or intellectuals.
● 2002: Started tracking blogs
● 2006: SXSW awards for Best
Technical Achievement and
Best of Show.
● 2006: Edelman's fake blogs
scandal.
● Dec 07: Indexes over 112m
weblogs.
● Feb 08: Alexa: #463
David Sifry, b. 1968
Technorati.com
John Hopkins University
photo from Wikipedia

7. ● 2002: Anderson sold eMail
marketing company to
eUniverse (aka InterMix Media)
● Nov 03: Official launch amidst
Friendster growth pains
● Mid 04: 1-2 million accounts
● Jul 05: Acquired by News Corp
for $580m.
● 2006: Jun: $200m revenue.
Nov: 38.7 billion page views vs
Yahoo's 38.05 billion.
DeWolfe & Anderson ● 2008: Alexa rank #5. Over
b. 1966 & 1970 100m members. Third (or the)
most popular website in US.
MySpace.com
U.C. Berkeley, U.C. Los Angeles
photo of Fortune Magazine cover

8. ● 1999: Co-founded Pyra Labs,
offering Blogger for free.
● 2003: Blogger acquired by
Google.
● 2004: With the Blogger team,
named as People of the Year
by PC Magazine.
● 2004: Co-founded Odeo for
Evan Williams podcasting.
b. 1972 ● 2007: Co-founded Twitter for
Blogger, Odeo, Twitter micro-blogging.
university dropout ● Feb 08: Twitter on Alexa #614
photo from Wikipedia

9. ● 1995: Larry met Sergey;
1996: Research on backlinks
● 1998: Founded Google Inc.
with US$100K investment by
a Sun Microsystems founder
● 1999: PC Mag's Top 100
Web Sites & Search Engines;
$25m venture capital; Time's
Top 10 Best Cybertech list
● 2000: 10 language versions;
first keyword-based ads
(AdWords); 2001: PageRank;
Larry Page, Sergey Brin 2004: IPO raised $1.6b
b. 1973 (Jews), ● Feb 06: quot;$100 billion empire
Google.com dominating the Netquot; – Time
Stanford University
● Feb 08: Alexa: #4 photo from Time

10. ● Position: Rating site where
users rate attractiveness of
photos submitted voluntarily
by others.
● Oct 2000: Started
HotOrNot.com
● 2001-now: Some say the
founders of YouTube,
Facebook and Zooomr
were inspired by this site.
● 2008: NetNielsen Rating's
James Hong, b. 1974? Top 25 advertising domains.
HotOrNot.com ● Feb 2008: Alexa: #1977
U.C. Berkeley
Screenshot from HotOrNot.com

11. ● Position: Pioneer of tagging
on the Web.
● Late 03: Launch of Del.icio.us
● Dec 05: Acquired by Yahoo!
for an undisclosed sum --
rumored to be $30 million,
with Schachter's share being
approximately $15 million.
● Feb 08: Alexa: #120,141
Joshua Schachter
b. 1974
del.icio.us & geoURL
Carnegie Mellon University
photo from Wikipedia

12. ● Position: Consumer media,
people watch and share
original videos on the Web.
● 2005: Feb: Co-founded
YouTube; Nov: Funding from
Sequoia Capital; Dec: Launch
● 2006: Aug: 6.1m videos and
500K user accounts -- Wall
Chad Hurley, b. 1977 Street Journal; Oct: Sold
YouTube.com YouTube for $1.65 billion to
Google.
Indiana University of Pennsylvannia
ex-Paypal employee ● 2007: YouTube clones appear
● 2008: 70m videos; politicians
creating channels in YouTube;
Feb: Alexa: #2
photo (CC) Joi Ito

13. ● Position: Community news
syndication portal via social
bookmarks on blogs and non-
hierarchical, democratic
editorial control.
● 2004: Nov: Experiment; Dec:
Launch
● 2005: Added Adsense, friends
list, and new interface by
Silverorange
● Sep 06: Made $60 million in
Kevin Rose, b. 1977 18 months -- Business Week
Digg.com ● Feb 08: Alexa: #161
University dropout
photo (CC) Night Star Romanus

14. ● Position: Free open-source
blogware.
● 2003: Created fork of b2
● 2004: Six Apart changed
Movable Type licensing
terms
● 2007: Mar: #16 on quot;50 Most
Matt Mullenweg Important People on the
Webquot; list by PC World; Oct:
b. 1984 Turned down US$200
WordPress.org & .com million offer to buy
company.
High School for the
Performing & Visual Arts ● Feb 08: Alexa: #650, #50
photo (CC) Leonid Mamchenkov

15. ● Position: Online community for
students, faculty and staff.
● 2004: Feb: Launch for Harvard;
Apr: Open to Ivy League schools
● 2005: $12.5m venture capital;
Oct: universities in Canada, UK,
Dec: Australia, New Zealand
● 2006: Declined $200m offer
Mark Zuckerberg
b. 1984 ● 2007: Mar: Most viewed site for
Facebook.com youths aged 17-25, more females
(69%) - US poll; May: Platform for
Harvard dropout; developers; Oct: Microsoft 1.6%
share of Facebook for $246m
“World's youngest billionaire
with $1.5 billion on paper” - ● 2008: 64m active users aged 13
Forbes
and over, Alexa: #7
photo (CC) Brian Solis

16. ● Position: Photo-sharing site
● 2005: Launch
● 2006: Geotagging, quot;Flickr on
steroidsquot; - Michael Arrington
● 2007: Sun Microsystems &
Zoho helped to launch Mark
III?
● 2008: 50,000+ users,
localised in over 18
languages.
● Feb 08: Alexa #11,421
Kristopher Tate
b. 1989
Zooomr.com
photo from BBC

17. You
Yes, you.
You control the Information Age.
Welcome to your world.
Time Person of the
Year 2006
photo of Time magazine cover

18. Me
Yes, me.
I control the Information Age.
Welcome to my world.
Time Person of the
Year 2006
Spoof of Time magazine cover
by Malaysian blogger CF Liew

19. What about... Uzyn Chua, b. 1983
Singapore? Ping.sg
● Position: Digg features for
Singaporean bloggers
● 2006: Launched metablog for
Singapore from hostel room in
National University of
Singapore
● 2007: Jul: Graduated from
NUS; over 1000 users; Nov:
Asia's Top 25 Web Young
Entrepreneurs -
BusinessWeek Asia
● Feb 08: Alexa # 38,974
photo of Straits Times report

20. The keywords are “Social” and “Open”
photo (CC) Daveybot

21. Q. Do you wanna be a “PC” only
or a “Grid Computer”?
diagram by Adarsh Patil

22. compiled in Feb-Mar 2008 by
Josephine J.K. Tan
NETCoachAsia.com
ClappingTrees.com