Monetizing Widgets

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Monetizing Widgets

Mike Hirshland asks if you can make money in the widgets business. And he's gotten a number of blog posts back with thoughtful answers.

Here's my take. Of course you can make money in the widgets business. I think you can make money in most any business if you take the right angle on the opportunity.

Many people thought you couldn't make money in feeds, that RSS was an open standard, that managing feeds would be a commodity, and that there wasn't a defensible position to be had. FeedBurner proved them all wrong and has built a wonderful business in feed management.

Will the widget opportunity be the same as feeds? Should the playbook for widgets be the same one FeedBurner used for feeds? I doubt it. Frankly FeedBurner is already moving into widgets so copying their playbook (being the FeedBurner for widgets) seems like the wrong angle to take.

But I guarantee you that there are some smart crafty entrepreneurs out there right now who have figured an angle that does make sense and are building the technology to power their move.

I think that is what startups are all about. It's not just about technology. That's necessary but not sufficient. It's about the angle of attack. The entry point. Getting that right is often the hardest part.

Comments (11) | Posted March 18, 2007 in Venture Capital and Technology

Comments

Making one that is so good people will pay to have it on their site could work....

Posted by: Andy Swan | Mar 18, 2007 10:02:59 PM

Angle of attack -- Brilliant!

Posted by: Bill Olen | Mar 18, 2007 10:52:36 PM

The way users choose widgets today, the most common use case is "hmm, that's cool, let me get one" when they see it on another profile, rather than "Let me go look for a widget to put on my profile - whats the comprehensive list so that I can choose the best one".

This makes it harder for "marketplaces" of widgets to break into the mainstream, and makes it easier for widget companies that have a critical mass of users on social networks grow faster and faster.

This would argue that media type models (and possibly also freemium models with a large enough base of free users) will be the eventual business models. I blogged a bit about this in the context of Rockyou (one of our portfolio companies) in January at the Lightspeed Blog at Wither widgets?

Posted by: jeremy liew | Mar 19, 2007 1:54:06 AM

hey, Jeremy -- I'd love to read that "Wither Widgets?" post of yours, but please check the link...it's broken for me

thanks,
Graeme

Posted by: Graeme Thickins | Mar 19, 2007 8:43:29 AM

It's great to have so many widgets available. But there is a lot of confusion between a widget and a fundable company. I see a number of cool widgets under the mistaken impression that they're a full-fledged business line and look for venture financing when the exit opportunities just aren't there.

Posted by: JayR | Mar 19, 2007 10:36:01 AM

Some widgets have no clear business model such as mybloglog, though they sold out and everyone was happy. However, widgets have the ability bring certain functionality to blogsites/social media that currently does not exist in good form....some old very popular web1 applications that have since been either forgotten or trapped in closed environments. Watch the feeds, some interesting stuff to come ... one of our companies has just started development on a cool one ...

Richie

Posted by: Richie Hecker | Mar 20, 2007 1:27:41 AM

Richie

Posted by: Richie Hecker | Mar 20, 2007 1:28:23 AM

I have a patent-pending technology that is as big as friendster's social network patent but for monetizing widgets on social networks. My idea pre-dates the current market attempts and is solid, unique, and gets around the barriers that many cannot find when trying to monetize sites like myspace. Even mega sites like youtube and traditional television benefit directly from my remarkable social media solution. I am looking for like minded investors to fund the idea on an angel/seed level. Everything else is viral and probably one of the best solutions of 2007. Email me at gigaboy20 at yahoo. Soon, everyone is going to get blipd!

Posted by: Ty Graham | Mar 20, 2007 4:28:06 PM

I review so many startups and Web 2.0 innovations that appear to be "stand alone" applications, yet sometimes I feel like telling the developers that they should market their wares as widgets.

A really good one I can think of is me.dium, which would make one heck of a localized navigation tool to find friends and share surfing habits.

I wonder what kind of similar situations you guys are aware of that I am not?

Thanks,
Phil Butler

Posted by: Phil Butler | Mar 20, 2007 9:05:17 PM

Seeing the landscape and figuring out the right angle of attack is key. But I think it's possible to do that, then discover you're not in the right position to take the necessary angle of attack.

So, I'd change this statement: "you can make money in most any business if you take the right angle on the opportunity."

To this: "there's money to be made in most any business if you find the right angle on the opportunity, and can take advantage of it."

Somebody can make money in any business, but not anybody.

Posted by: Rick Burnes | Mar 22, 2007 1:04:05 PM

Seeing the landscape and figuring out the right angle of attack is key. But I think it's possible to do that, then discover you're not in the right position to take the necessary angle of attack.

So, I'd change this statement: "you can make money in most any business if you take the right angle on the opportunity."

To this: "there's money to be made in most any business if you find the right angle on the opportunity, and can take advantage of it."

Somebody can make money in any business, but not anybody.

Posted by: Rick Burnes | Mar 22, 2007 1:07:38 PM

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