Debating a Bubble

Another great Wall Street Journal online debate: Is ‘Web 2.0’ Another Bubble? David Hornik and Todd Dagres’ excellent back-and-forth was unfortunately overshadowed by the dead week between Christmas and New Year’s, but it’s well worth the read.

Predictably, I think they’re both right. David’s strongest point was towards the middle:

I think that you aren’t giving Web 2.0 entrepreneurs enough credit. Sure, there are some “me too” sites out there. There always are. But the amount of rapid innovation in online services has been staggering — from Skype to Digg to Six Apart to YouTube to Flickr to Facebook… The list goes on. They aren’t microprocessor companies with years of patent-protected intellectual property. On the other hand, they are innovating around things that matter to consumers today. And I believe they are being appropriately valued, not just by potential acquirers but by the consumers themselves.