Is Kleiner Perkins the fat lady on Web 2.0?

Toronto Lawyer Rob Hyndman asks whether VC Kleiner Perkins’ halting Web 2.0 investments signifies that the fat lady has sung.

This would mean a lot more to me if I knew exactly what Web 2.0 was – I’ve been reading about it for years now, have co-organized two conferences on it, and I still don’t know. And when I say that, I’m being a lot less glib than you might suppose. In any event, I suppose the real point is that I don’t know exactly what Kleiner means when they refer to Web 2.0. But it doesn’t matter. Suffice it to say that for too long there has been too much of too little on the Web. It’s beginning to feel right for a bit of a shakeout.

Agree with Rob on both accounts. I’m not sure what Web 2.0 is, unless it’s Web 1.0 (no revenue but lots of visitors), and that there has been ‘too much of too little’ on the Web of late.

Those of us Web 1.0 veterans who recovered by 2004 started businesses based on revenue. We grew organically through demand and income. Has the obvious benefit of cash. Plus, listening to the consumers input (their pocketbook speaks loudest) helps improve the end product or service. It’s worked well for LexBlog.

Rob’s post comes on the heels of Steve Rubel’s ‘Five Simple Sobriety Steps for Web 2.0 Kool Aid Boozers,’ who sees a dot com crash of the non revenue Web 2.0 crazies.

With the general uncertainty on the US economy it wouldn’t surprise me to see a shakeout coming.