Marc Andreessen has started blogging and out comes a series of great posts, especially this one about how there’s no such thing as web 2.0.  He calls it a trend:

What happens when startups start getting referred to as "Web 2.0
startups" — or for that matter, "B2B startups" or "mobile startups" or
"pen computing startups" — or as being in the Web 2.0/B2B/mobile/pen
computing "space" — is that trends are getting mistaken for markets
and products.

You can’t build a company based on a trend.

In the early 1990s, the telcos were racing each other in building their proprietary networks.  Metcalfe’s Law and the power of networks was starting to be understood, and the quest to create the dominant network was on, with the "networks2 intelligence" positioned as the key differentiator.  In France, we saw a version of this with the Minitel.

Then came the stupidest network of all: the Internet.  All it knew was to push IP packets around.  There was no intelligence built in to the network.  The intelligence resided on the edge.

In Turkey last week, we saw the launch of two proprietary social networks by two of the three GSM operators.  Turkcell created Turkcell-im Benim (translates to My Own Turkcell), and Avea came up with Patlican (a play on words, meaning both "eggplant", and "you will explode").

Turkey already enjoys a healthy set of social networking platform, ranging from Yonja (which started out as a Friendster look-alike) to Mondus (which we launched as a social utility/platform 3 months ago.)  Here comes a telco powered platform. And by the way, you can really interact only with other customers of that GSM network.  Quite a uniting characterstic, is it not?  I really feel like I have a lot in common with other Avea customers.

The telcos should treat the independent social platforms as the stupid network, and try to bring their intelligence layer on top of those, instead of trying to build their intelligent networks.

Amusing list yesterday from the a:c…  The talk of a new bubble has now been around for 18 months, since the term Web2.0, with about a thousand possible meanings, got people and the media in a spin.

Although I lack the on-the-ground prespective from the valley, I think it’s difficult to call the current state of internet business a bubble.  First, you don’t have many public companies, so the valuation inflation is mainly happenning on the VC books.  That’s a much smaller problem, especially given the liquidity levels globally.  Second, if you looked, you could see similar exuberance in almost any market (e.g. residential real estate yields in Istanbul seem to hover around 2-3%), so the asset price levels are not isolated to the internet sector. Third, some of the bubblish valuations we’ve seen (YouTube, DoubleClick, implied Facebook), are truly paradigm shifting companies and not exactly pets.com’s.

Not a bubble… Yet..

Grou.ps needs good hackers.  They also have a funny job ad.

While I am fascinated by Facebook’s new platform move, Scott has an insight that made me pause.  He points out the similarities of AOL and facebook, as in how they are now beginning to aggregate applications targeted at the audience they can deliver.

His last word is:

Careful

I am following the coverage of f8, and I find myself thinking that what Facebook is setting out to create is the most significant development on the internet since Google.  An open platform, supported by its own markup language (modified HTML) and open-source programming toolset (thrift), overlayed on the most loyal user base, is immensely valuable.

Good coverage by Mashable, TechCrunch and GigaOm.

PS. Photo by Chris Kelly.

Amazon’s announced a disruptive move today: They launched a music store selling MP3s, through a partnership with EMI and apparently 12K other labels.

This is exactly what I have been waiting for.  I have been sick of iTunes restricting which MP3 player I can use, or how many computers I can transfer my music to.  I presume they will try to restrict me geographically, but I can usually get around that using a US credit card.

I hope the other majors, if they have not already, follow EMI to Amazon fast.

eBay has acquired a minority stake in Turkey’s leading auction site, GittiGidiyor.com.  It’s really the first second global internet company acquisition in the Turkish market (after Ticketmaster’s acquisition of Biletix.  Thanks, Tahir).  More should follow, as Turkey’s significance as an internet market is getting more visible.

Congratulations to Serkan, Burak and Tolga, the founding team at GittiGidiyor.com, who have created a great company.

I continue to believe that one of the next great companies created will help solve consumer healthcare problems.  The current contender for that prize is Revolution Health.  Fabrice has a few words, first hand from Steve Case, on the company.

He also described what he’s doing with Revolution Health. As we all
know and as Steve experienced with his brother’s Dan brain cancer and
his various encounters with the health care system, health care is
broken in this country. Consumers are not the decision makers, there is
no consumer brand in health care and getting information and services
is extremely inconvenient. He intends to change that.

OK, I could not resist the headline…  Actually, what I mean is that broadcast TV is bankrupt and as a consumer, I am demanding access to video content of my choice, on any screen I prefer, at any time I prefer, and I am willing to pay a lot of money for it.  The technology has been here for a long time, but old media, who still (at least legally) controls content has so far not succeeded in delivering the solution.

I am in NYC this week and being here reminds me both about the available content that I would demand (if only it was offered to me) and that the technology has enabled the U.S. customer to get a similar experience to the above.

What I have in mind can be attained today, fairly easily, although it would involve breaching some laws.  I’d have to set up a server in the US, get a cable tuner next to it, and hook it up to a DVR and a SlingBox.  Wİth the server I can purchase the content offered online in the U.S. (typically blocked to Turkish IPs) like the shows on NBC or iTunes.  With the PVR and SlingBox, I can stream live or saved content to Turkey.  I would pay for the services (cable) and the pay-content.

I can not understand why this valuable an experience is not offered to me by the media/telecoms industry when the technology is so readily available?  When I don’t have this option what do I do?  I watch less video content, and when I do, some of it is pirated.

Don’t even get me started on the zones for DVDs! That’s for another post…