Responding to a report in BusinessWeek, which questioned whether the Web 2.0 industry will survive the credit crunch, enterprise Web 2.0 specialist WorkLight says it most definitely will and, as many areas of modern IT struggle, predicts that Web 2.0 will actually prosper.
BusinessWeek's column overlooks the critical fact that Web 2.0 technology is much more than a collaborative environment. It allows businesses to enhance their interactions with other businesses, as well as connect with customers where they are spending their time online said David Lavenda, WorkLight's vice president of marketing and product strategy.
Because of these key B2B and B2C advantages, it is clear that Web 2.0 technology has a number of advantages over conventional business and customer interaction environments, such as the phone and email, and at a significant cost advantage too, he added
According to Lavenda, thanks to these advantages, it is highly unlikely that the plethora of new Web 2.0 services - ranging from its increasing use by the travel industry right through to specialist business forums on Facebook - will be impaired by the economic downturn that has hit the world's economies.
If anything, he says, ìWeb 2.0-driven services will prosper, whilst more conventional B2B and B2C interactions will, if anything, be curtailed by an investment shortfall. In fact, in an economic environment where businesses absolutely need to provide more value to their customers at lower costs, meeting them where they are already spending their time online means survival.î
The BusinessWeek article draws the parallel between the current economic malaise and the problems of the Great Depression, noting that workers in the 1930 were driven by a desire to work hard, save hard and live in an economically conservative fashion. The piece overlooks the fact that we are now 80 years further down the pipe and the Internet is interwoven into the framework of business, just as the telephone was in the 1930s, he said.
In the 1930s businesses continued to rely on innovative technologies like the humble telephone unrelated to the Great Depression, so can you seriously see businesses eschewing innovative internet technologies, such as Web 2.0, because of the current economic crisis? I sincerely doubt it, he added.
For more on the BusinessWeek Web 2.0 article: http://tinyurl.com/6gau3k
For more on WorkLight:
Web 2.0 will more than survive the credit crunch - it will prosper
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