Growing With the Real-Time Web

More and more, the way information is shared on the web is shifting to real-time. The “real-time web” is emerging (Read Write Web covers this quite well). The easiest examples to point to are the ones getting the most attention (Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed, etc.) but the trend runs much deeper. Using Twitter as an example though; what makes its service truly valuable is the ability to aggregate, search and monitor trends within the real-time updates. If you want the latest news (and by latest I mean not just up to the minute, but up the second) on most anything imaginable, there is now instant (or at least faster) access to it, making the information much more valuable. This ability to instantly access the latest information is changing the way we experience, consume and share information. Twitter is not only place where this is happening as Read Write Web points out. Indications of the move toward the real-time web can be seen everywhere: Facebook has implemented real-time updates; the New York Times recently launched Times Wire which provides a stream of news (pictures too) that is updated every minute; Google a couple of weeks ago declared that real-time search, while still an unsolved challenge for them, will be very important; Google is also launching an application that incorporates real-time information from the web, with its just announced online communication tool Wave; through enterprise collaboration tools, companies are starting to realize the value of instant information; new recommendation engines (competing with Amazon’s or potentially Microsoft’s new Bing) are using real-time user behavior to help make purchasing decisions, the list goes on.

So what does this all mean and where are the opportunities for venture capital? The real-time web is here to stay, but it may require people coming to terms with the fact that there is simply too much information to consume. Kind of like how with television there’s always something on, the same will be true (or is already true in some cases) with the new live web – you’ll be able to “tune-in” to a site and catch what’s “on” in terms of content and information. At the same time you will be able to subscribe to, search for, or record, information that’s important to you. There’s still plenty of room for growth around these concepts as the conflux and growth of valuable real-time data is still new. Venture capital can play a role here. Here are a few areas where I think new companies might crop up and have potential to be backed by venture capitalists.

• Of course there will be companies that further develop technology and infrastructure around the real-time web – this includes companies that build tools and software to aggregate real-time data.
• There will be plenty of companies that will be able to use the increasing amount of real-time flow of information and package and present it in useful ways – there are limitless possibilities here.
• Companies that can find a way to rapidly verify the integrity of real-time data, particularly news, will find themselves in demand.
• Advertising and generating revenue around real-time data will be vital – companies that build ads using real-time data will be important, and even more important might be companies that can figure out micropayments (allowing consumers of real-time content to efficiently and effortlessly pay for content they consume – there’s definitely a huge hole here that PayPal does not come close to filling, neither does Google Checkout).
• Finally I think video presents a huge opportunity – 99% of all video is still watched over a television, and while bandwidth is often a limiting factor, video is undoubtedly going to become part of the new real-time web as the line between television and internet video starts to blur.