Dave's blog

Despite the slumping economy, new figures indicate that at least one industry has actually increased its profitability this year. Google recently released information on a surprisingly strong first-quarter performance. Profits increased 30% from last year to $1.31 billion; sales increased 42% to $5.19 billion.

According to the latest research, Web 2.0 is here to stay, drawing in significant percentages of users with engaging content and social networking capabilities. Guidance, a web tech consulting firm, and market research company Synovate conducted a joint survey of 1,000 online consumers.

The most dramatic findings were the 60% of consumers who were attracted to sites that offered Web 2.0 features, such as customer product recommendations, dynamic content, social networking components.

On Thursday, AOL announced plans to acquire social networking site Bebo for $850 million in an attempt to be competitive in the social networking industry. While most articles are gushing over the massive return on Bebo, Kara Swisher of All Things Digital is one of the few journalists reporting on the actual revenue numbers. In 2006, Bebo pulled in a $7 million with $3 million in EBITDA, or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, or amortization – in other words, earnings before non-operating expenses. In 2007, the numbers increased, but it was nothing to write home about: $20 million in revenue, $5 million EBITDA.