nextWeb.0: Technology will Reign

With Web App Commodification, Open Standards get Threatened, but Real Technology stages a Comeback

Think about it, if there's really a commodification of web start-ups/apps going on, then in order to survive, new companies will have to hyper-differentiate themselves.

Of course there are two ways they can do this:

• Lock in user data (i.e. differentiated through brute force)
• Provide value through technological innovation (i.e. differentiated through engineering)

So, on one hand, this oncoming commodification (bubble) of web start-ups/app is BAD for open standards and the opening of the social graph. Companies will be more incentivized to keep user data tightly guarded, to lock people in in order to lock in the value of each user.

But I think I was right when I said: "tomorrow’s great platforms will be open."

So future web apps will only have one option: be technologically brilliant and provide real value to users instead of extracting value from users.

And this makes me feel okay about the future.