This evening, I went to Geeksessions to listen to four speakers talk about web analytics and also did some socializing and networking. Sorry, but I dont have any pictures. I have been a little lazy and taking a bit of a break from bringing my camera to all the events that I go to. Each speaker spoke for 20 minutes and honestly, the sessions were a little boring and I did not really learn too much. I then ventured off to the Monthly Mashable SF event at Roe.

On the car trip over to Roe, I brought along with me, Alicia Lin of Mashable. On this car ride over, I asked Alicia what she thought about the whole economy recession, web 2.0 bubble, and she brought up the point of the seven year cycle. The internet bubble popped in 2001. It is now seven years later. Since then, many can say that it has been quite different. Companies are not spending as lavishly as they did back then and most companies have a good business plan and strategy. However, there has also been numerous startups that have come up with plenty of venture capital money that do not necessarily have a good business strategy yet. There are tons of new startups popping up everyday, and I am sure almost everyone knows someone who has left their safe and stable job to start up a company. The companies can be self funded, funded by angel investors or by VCs hoping to cash in on the next big idea.

We have seen plenty of successful companies come out of nowhere. Some very good examples are Facebook and Youtube. Both websites are on the list of top five most visited websites in the world. Facebook has turned down numerous offers for acqusitions and finally settled for $240 million from Microsoft for 1.6 percent of the company in October 2007. This valued Facebook at over $15 billion. Youtube was created in February 2005 and in October 2006, Google acquired Youtube for $1.65 billion. Every startup basically has Facebook and Youtube as their role model but obviously, it is not an easy job to be as successful as these companies.

A little more recently, we have seen companies such as Twitter and Digg gain plenty of funding. These companies have gained a huge amount of traffic but we have yet to see them cash in. There are now also plenty of social networking or related websites. There are also plenty of companies and people creating Facebook applications. Facebook applications have become a huge hit these last two year and there are now over 30,000 applications. People were able to make big money from the amount of ad revenue generated from these apps that many people even quit their jobs to pursue making Facebook apps. It is almost impossible to keep up with the latest apps now however, and it seems like the Facebook app phenomenon has died down. The new phenomenon has currently been Iphone apps, which we see a similar fad happening as more and more apps come out everyday. The Iphone applications are a little more regulated as Apple has to approve the apps and actually sell it on Apple's own Iphone App Store.

From attending numerous conferences, sessions, demos, and networking events I have seen a lot of different startups. There are a lot that are creative and look like a good idea, but there are also plenty of startups that look like garbage. As I see more demos and startups, the number of garbage websites seems to be increasing. There are also plenty of websites that try to do the same exact thing. The goal is to do the same job better, but that is not always easy to do.

The fun part about all these startups and tech industry in the bay area is that there are plenty of events and parties to go to. Many events are sponsored by startups to promote their products and websites. In the bay area, there is literally at least one tech networking/socializing event happening every single weekday. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, there are always multiple events happening.

This all seems like it is a web 2.0 bubble waiting to burst. The seven year cycle is a cycle that applies to life. At age seven, a child's self realization begins to occur. At fourteen, you become a teenager and begin to develop into an adult both physically and mentally. At twenty one, you become an adult. The cycle continues every seven years. Many things happen in sevens. The planet Saturn has a seven and a half year cycle and Saturn transits are sometimes blamed for changes that occur.

As the stock market crashed on September 29th 2008, the Dow Jones went down 777 points. Even thought it came back up 500 points the day after, we are still not out of the woods. The banking and housing crisis have already hit and we are basically in a recession. Things do not look like they are going to get back to normal anytime soon. There are many that hope that this is the bottom but there are also plenty that fear it is not the bottom. The web 2.0 bubble could be the next thing to happen. Unemployment is rising, banks and lending companies are extremely strict now about lending money, so VCs are bound to be a lot more cautious now. The bubble could pop by the end of the year or even early next year, but it seems like something is bound to happen sooner or later. You can't avoid the inevitable.