10 Most Successful Web 2.0 Startups To Date

By Sid Yadav    April 14th, 2007

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I’ve had an idea for this kind of a list for months now, but I guess I’ve been waiting until we have clear, agreed, and well-defined players rather than something we insiders consider successful but is really unknown to the rest of the world.

The list was narrowed down from a selection of 20 startups, and the criteria were as simple as (a) they had to be a new startup — Valley-based or not, but most are anyway, and (b) they had to be looked at as a Web 2.0 company (i.e. no eBay or Yahoo! or Craigslist), which I think we’ll all agree on. I’ve tried to diversify the list with startups doing all kinds of things, and while this is a list of the ‘most successful,’ please note that the startups in here are in no way the ‘best.’ They’re simply used by the most people, have happy investors behind them, and are looking toward a bright future.

(1) MySpaceMySpace

Launched: July 2003
Founded by: Tom Anderson and Chris DeWolfe
Type: Social Network
Targeted Audience: 16 – 24 (teens, young adults)
Approximate Users: 150 million (100 million as of August 2006; growing at around 200,000 registrations per day)
Approximate Pageviews: 40 billion per month (as of March 2007)
Acquisition/Valuation: Bought by Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Interactive Media in July 2005 for $580 million

(2) YouTubeYouTube

Launched: February 2005
Founded by: Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim
Type: Video Sharing
Targeted Audience: 16 – 40 (teens, adults)
Approximate Users: Unknown
Approximate Pageviews: 4 billion per month (as of July 2006, serving 100 million videos per day)
Acquisition/Valuation: Bought by Google in October 2006 for $1.6 billion

(3) FacebookFacebook

Launched: February 2004
Founded by: Mark Zuckerberg
Type: Social Network
Targeted Audience: 20 – 25 (college students), this is changing since they have opened up
Approximate Users: 18 million (as of February 2007)
Approximate Pageviews: 22 billion per month (as of December 2006)
Acquisition/Valuation: Rejected $1 billion offer from Yahoo! in September 2006, asking for $2 billion

(4) WikipediaWikipedia

Launched: January 2001
Founded by: Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger
Type: Wiki-based Encyclopedia
Targeted Audience: 10 – 80 (general)
Approximate Users: 50,000 active users (as of January 2006)
Approximate Pageviews: 6 billion per month (as of February 2007)
Acquisition/Valuation: Non-profit, has raised over $3 million in donations

(5) BeboBebo

Launched: January 2005
Founded by: Michael Birch and Xochi Birch
Type: Social Network
Targeted Audience: 16 – 24 (teens, young adults)
Approximate Users: 24 million (as of May 2006)
Approximate Pageviews: 4 billion per month (as of October 2006)
Acquisition/Valuation: Rejected $500 million offer from British Telecom Group, asking for $1 billion

(6) DiggDigg

Launched: November 2004
Founded by: Kevin Rose
Type: Social Content Bookmarking/Voting
Targeted Audience: 16 – 30 (teens, adults; technology-savvy)
Approximate Users: 1 million
Approximate Pageviews: 118 million per month (as of 2006)
Acquisition/Valuation: Rumored to have been in negotiations with Fox Interactive/Newscorp, asking for $150 million

(7) FlickrFlickr

Launched: February 2004
Founded by: Ludicorp
Type: Photo Sharing
Targeted Audience: 16 – 80 (general)
Approximate Users: 1.5 million (as of November 2005)
Approximate Pageviews: Unknown
Acquisition/Valuation: Bought by Yahoo! in March 2005 for an undisclosed price estimated in the lower tens of millions.

(8) NetvibesNetvibes

Launched: September 2005
Founded by: Tariq Krim
Type: AJAX-based Startpage
Targeted Audience: 20 – 40 (adults; technology-savvy)Has
Approximate Users: 7 million (as of February 2007)
Approximate Pageviews: N/A
Acquisition/Valuation: Has received around $20 million of venture capital to date; no acquisition rumors or link-ups of any kind.

(9) Del.icio.usDel.icio.us

Launched: Late 2003
Founded by: Joshua Schachter
Type: Social Bookmarking
Targeted Audience: 20 – 40 (adults; technology-savvy)
Approximate Users: 1 million (as of September 2006)
Approximate Pageviews: 4 million (peak, as of August 2006)
Acquisition/Valuation: Bought by Yahoo! in December 2005 for estimated $30 – $40 million

(10) MeeboMeebo

Launched: September 2005
Founded by: Sandy Jen, Seth Sternberg, and Elaine Wherry
Type: AJAX-based Instant Messaging
Targeted Audience: 13 – 40 (teens, adults)
Approximate Users: 500,000 users (as of October 2006)
Approximate Pageviews: N/A
Acquisition/Valuation: Has received around $12 million of venture capital to date; no acquisition rumors or linkups.

Most Commented

  • Where's MyBlogLog:)? That was one of the fastest launch to acquisition.

    -Zaid
  • Zaid,
    It was a decision between Meebo and MyBlogLog for the 10th place. After thinking hard I decided to go with Meebo since it's more mainstream appealing and as of currently MyBlogLog is dominated by the techies, i.e. we're the only ones who known about it and hence find it successful - the rest of the world has no clue! Additionally, Meebo has more users and some impressive stats.

    Thanks,
    Sid
  • No doubt that the fastest growing community us YouTube, but my personal favorite from this list is Netvibes - really useful site with great functionality that helps to save time

    p.s. It would be nice to see mist successful blogs ;)
  • Nice, although predictable list. Perhaps more interesting would be "The Most Successful Web 2.0 Sites Positioning to Challenge the Top 10"

    Also, Maris, the most successful blogs can be found on Technorati: http://technorati.com/pop/blogs/

    All the best

    Tom
  • Did you factor in any information about profitability in making this list, or was valuation the primary financial measurement used?
  • Tom,
    Thanks for your complement. That's an interesting idea, perhaps Part 2? ;-)

    rsflux,
    Since most Web 2.0 companies are private and don't release any information at all on profitablity and revenues (with the exception of perhaps YouTube which we have some data on) I decided to leave that out. While I realize that's one of the important things in terms of 'most successful,' Web 2.0 is really more about 'who can get acquired for the most money' than 'who can make the most money.' That was Web 1.0, and those companies are now the ones who are buying these.
  • Well, the list is good enough but the ranking criteria is not clear. Also, I would be interested in knowing about your ranking for Hi5, Linkedin and Skype.
  • Michael
    How about Seeking Alpha? www.seekingalpha.com. They own the financial publishing space.
  • I agree with the first commenter Zaid. MyBlogLog should be on this list. If you ask me, something that was bootstrapped with no venture capital, launch to acquisition in about a year is darn successful.
  • Vikrant,
    This is in no way a top 10 list. I've simply ranked them in an appropriate order, and since they're so different from one and other there's no 'standardized' way to judge them (i.e. how would you compare Netvibes to MySpace?), so we could argue on the placements of each one for hours.

    As for Hi5, LinkedIn and Skype, I did shortlist the three of them but they had to be ruled out for specific reasons. Hi5 is another social network, and while it's popular I already have 3 extremely popular ones on the list so it would simply be a sparse list of social networks if I had another one in there. The same is the case with LinkedIn, while I will agree that it's fairly popular -- has close to 10 million users. Lastly, Skype is a desktop app rather than a web app, so for it to be on the list I'd have to consider every .exe and .dmg created since 2003! Additionally, VoIP arguably isn't truly Web 2.0 -- it's been around for years.

    Michael,
    I'd consider Seeking Alpha more of a media property rather than a successful startup. I was looking to create a list which would ring bells in people's years rather than point them in a new direction.

    Jimmy,
    If there was an 11th place, beleive me MyBlogLog would undoubtedly be in there! I had to really make a choice on that one, and in a way I do regret not having it in there.
  • *chuckle* .. The problem with top 10 lists is that people tend to have their own opinion of what companies need to get in there and in which order they should be ranked.
  • Sid,

    By your own logic in comment #2, why include Delicious? That's as geek centric as MyBlogLog, even if it has more users.
  • these 3 should at least get honorable mention, if not somewhere in the #6-10 spots:
    * Photobucket
    * Wordpress
    * SixApart
    * BitTorrent
    * DeviantArt
  • Charles,
    The reason I included del.icio.us is because while it is currently used by a tech-centric community, it's as mainstream as you can get -- it's made for everyone. Every browser in the world has bookmarks, and I'm sure every web surfer has bookmarked at least one address in his or her lifetime, so if users knew about it it's something they'd easily get (digg is fairly the same as well). MyBlogLog, on the other hand begs to differ -- you have know a little technicalities to own a blog and nonetheless have a focus to achieve something to feel the need to network with others.

    Dave,
    All your suggestions were shortlisted. :) I'll edit the post later today and add an honourable mentions section. Thanks!
  • Skype ain't web2.0?
  • Phil,
    That's arguable, but in my opinion Skype itself isn't, but the technology behind it is. For example, since it's desktop-based, that takes away half of its 2.0 credibility. ;-) So if we have something web-based and that does VoIP, that would be true Web 2.0 -- there are a few players including GizmoCall.com which do this right now. And this doesn't only apply to VoIP, I'd say the same for things like BitTorrent, desktop widgets and photo sharing. You could argue otherwise, but I think the term Web 2.0 has come to refer more web-based apps.
  • richard
    Why aren't there any Internet Radio Web 2.0 sites on the list? I won't advertise for any but many are very good and have large listnerships.
  • What were numbers 11 thru 20?
  • I run a website that uses Video Webconferencing (not SKYPE video or MSN Video, but a completely FLASH based interface called Digital Samba) that allows English speakers from around the world to teach Chinese students in Asia.

    We take care of everything from billing to automatic recording of the lessons to payment out to teachers and we integrate teacher rankings, video profiles, etc.

    We launched last month and hope that this can allow English speakers to hook up with Asian students.

    http://www.teacherjames.com
  • Ignorant
    Add Last.fm between #5 and #7.
  • jayo
    www.pageflakes.com is cool ajax startup, was it not considered?
  • meebo also needs an place... Thats really cool
  • Deviantart should be on the list. I dont agree with myspace as web 2.0 start-up.
  • You say they are a success and i say they are a plague on the internet.
    But good compilation of stats all the same.
  • I think you should've included Orkut too in the list. Its equally successful.
  • Grauphlica
    blogspot?
  • MySpace haters,
    As I mention in the post, "while this is a list of the ‘most successful,’ please note that the startups in here are in no way the ‘best.’" MySpace, when it got acquired, was coined by many people as the beginning of Web 2.0. It's a social network, and just like all thousands of social networks, it does come into the definition of 'Web 2.0'. So, connecting the two, if something DOES count as Web 2.0, and something DOES get 40 billion pageviews per month and has 150 million users, more than better than any other player on the list, and that is exactly the criteria the list is based on -- why should it not be included? If it weren't for MySpace popularizing the social networks and figuring out this whole embedding craze, most of the social networks would cease to exist today. So in that respect, how could you leave a major player out of the category it itself helped in making?

    Last.fm lovers,
    I feel you! When I came up the list it totally slipped out of my mind -- I do beleive it deserves to be in there, perhaps in the 9th or 10th place as opposed to Netvibes/Meebo (and even MyBlogLog, which I considered for the place). Oh well, if I decide to update the list in the future you know who's getting a free pass.

    DeviantArt lovers (there's a couple!),
    This is another one which slipped off my mind and I probably wouldn't have considered it, however having checked out its Wikipedia page now and worked out that it's 10 times more popular than digg (gets 10b pageviews/month, has half as more users, etc.) it is something I guess I could've shortlisted and tried to get into the top 10. Of course, it would have a guaranteed entry to the top 10 if it weren't for a few doubts in my mind -- is it truly Web 2.0? The site was launched in 2000, when Web 2.0 wasn't even thought of, and I don't know if it incorporates even one major aspect of what the others in the list share -- perhaps it gets as far as being a photo sharing site, but is it not just a fancy version of a forum?
  • I'd like to know how much they make on Ads...
  • wishaway
    Pageflakes is the coolest startup. Its way too useful. Man!!! I cant have my day started without it. Why wasn't it considered. You should check it.
  • wishaway and Grauphlica,
    Pageflakes was considered, but Netvibes is not only about 5 times as popular in terms of traffic and perhaps users, it's also unofficially become the 'standard' when it comes to web-based AJAX startpages. That was a no brainer right there.
  • Hum... interesting... but I'd like if you extend the list on top 20 or 30. they are already well knowed web2.0 sites.
  • @ Sid/Zaid re: comments 1 and 2. It's a close call for exactly the opposite reason that Sid said. MyBlogLog can't hold a candle to Meebo on session length and user focus, but we kill 'em on reach and visits -- http://snapshot.compete.com/mybloglog.com+meebo...
  • dep
    I think http://www.30boxes.com/ definitely deserves a mention here. At the very least, an honorable mention :)
  • did del.icio.us sell too soon?
  • Scott,
    I think there are two reasons why you guys 'seem' to be killing them on pageviews, reach etc. First, if you try going to www.meebo.com you'll notice that you're taken to a different page every time -- i.e. wwwm.meebo.com, wwwl.meebo.com, wwwg.meebo.com etc. etc. They probably have hundreds of these (to bypass school filters) and it's possible that these online audience measurement companies can't track them. Additionally, as I said, MyBlogLog has much more of a techy influence -- who are exactly the people who would have the Complete/Alexa toolbar installed. On the other hand though, Meebo -- frankly speaking -- is dominated by 13 year olds who use it as a proxy to use IM at school. MyBlogLog, in my opinion, is much more of a strong, better and 'real' product (seems that the folks at Meebo are just trying to make the quick buck or two by bypassing school filters and getting used by users who don't care about them as a product). You guys have actual loyal users and fans, and I'm one of them, but when it comes down to the raw successfulness they might have it over you [not for long I hope, though.]
  • I wouldn't say these are the most successful. Metacafe and Dailymotion (which are much like YouTube) have a lot more visitors than some of the sites you listed.

    There's also Flurl which is pretty popular.

    Some explanation of the criteria used to select these would be nice.
  • @Chris:

    "I’ve tried to diversify the list with startups doing all kinds of things, and while this is a list of the ‘most successful,’ please note that the startups in here are in no way the ‘best.’ They’re simply used by the most people, have happy investors behind them, and are looking toward a bright future."

    You're right on the fact that Metacafe and Dailymotion have more pageviews, but as I stated, I tried to diversify the list so that we don't just end up with 5 social networks and 5 video sharing sites.
  • everyone loves facebook right now but i think they are headed towards a HUGE flameout. can you imagine your employer and employees being able to see drunk pics of you in college? they also have a mini revolt every time they change anything about the site.
    http://www.cheapgreencar.com

    g.
  • I agree on everything on that list, but I do not think MySpace deserves #1, because it is a site rattled with spam, loaded with advertisements and just not very friendly to me anymore, I prefer Facebook. Now I am not saying Facebook should be #1, but I feel that MySpace does not deserve #1..
  • Paul
    How could you include NetVibes, but leave out the #1 feed reader, Bloglines? Arguably the Bloglines acquisition by Ask was the first Web 2.0 acquisition, as well.
  • Having actually lived through Web 1.0, I seem to recall that it was all about the eyeballs and IPOing as fast as possible, not about profitability, but maybe old age is clouding my memory.
  • @rsflux:
    Haha, I have to admit - you have me there. What I actually meant to say was that the companies which lived through Web 1.0 (Google, Yahoo!, eBay, Microsoft, etc.) have now seemed to have figured out the profitability problem, they're more or less profitable now. Using the resources they've gained through the years, now they're the ones who are buying companies which have no idea how they'll make money, in hopes to figure something out in the future and gain access to the eyeballs who use them.
  • Al
    Anyone else find it ironic that the tag section at the end of the article says 'none' - made me chuckle...
  • brian
    FYI - The Del.icio.us number is a bit off - more like $8 million.
  • Brian,
    I'm not sure where you're getting your data from but if you look on the Internet there's quite a few well-respected sources who reported it to be around $30 - $40 million.

    http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=yahoo+del.icio...
  • I should upgrade my site to Web 2.0, okay maybe not. Enjoy my site:

    http://www.theconsultantblog.com/
  • brian
    Sorry - take a look a look at Battelle's original post in the link you posted. He updated it to $17-$19M. I seemed to remember hearing it was less and the original investment was somewhere around $6M with about 250k users and for some reason thought it was a bit less than $10M. Anywho...my memory isn't as good as your search query :)
  • toady
    sevenload.com is missing!
  • Brian,
    Haha, how ironic, it seems to be right in the middle of both of our data. I guess that counts in the lower tens of millions so I'll leave the post as it is.
  • Cool links, I found it interesting reading the valuation and traffic details on each start-up.
  • zero
    i think imeem.com should get a rating, it's far better than myspace and i would say it's growing
  • I was looking for an Indian site that can combine news, movies, cricket and also social networking aspects such as user points, forums, blogs, private messages etc. I stumbled upon http://www.hangoutwith.com and found to be great! Hangoutwith.com is a good social networking site especially for Indians and it is much cleaner than other sites such as orkut, tagged etc. It has news,videos,cricket news/videos,bollywood news/videos and much more!

    Give it a spin!
  • Wow I've never even heard of bebo
  • This is great, and to save youtube videos i use www.savetube.com
  • This is an interesting list, I expected some others to be up there...
  • I believe the list site will be the next successful one. Because the list is the quick way to get resources. Everyone like such things!
  • Will
    What about Google? They only IPO'd in 2004. Their PageRank system and all the data they acquire from users absolutely makes them a web 2.0 company, arguably the first.
  • Hi,

    I am a part of a recently launched website eyemany.com. Its basically a professional profile builder with features like Video resume, text resume, Blog, Question and answers and professional networking .Your are kindly invited to check the content, features and functionality of the website.


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  • I believe the list site will be the next successful one. Because the list is the quick way to get resources. Everyone like such things!
  • I think that this list should include StumbleUpon.com, but then again its just my opinoin
  • it's so cool
  • MyThings.com will probably join the list by the end of 2008.
  • yeah, like townkings (www.townkings.com) which nominated for the "Finds of the Year" Award by Yahoo in Germany.
  • new startpage made in Italy http://www.bigolsitalia.com/
  • Dion
    Hi Sid i go to ur skool
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  • ajax jones
    LOL, and which ones exactly on this list are now into the profit zone?
  • Liliviadiem
    tests time mashine
  • I think HI5 should be on this list as well
  • Sid, I am surprised that u have not included rapidshare ... loads of ppl are living on it .. ;)
  • Hi, everybodyb
  • Maximilian
    I have found one nice tool http://www.GoogleItFaster.com . Is so clean and user-friendly, that I'm surprised why more web searching services are not using that solution. Do you have any idea?
  • tt
    try
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  • Wow, these awesome sites are relatively new. Youtube was launched only in 2005. Great Idea really sell. Imagine how much Youtube would be worth if it sell to Google now.
  • Wow thanks for the list ! It is very helpful. I didn't know about most of them . Thanks for the introduction.
  • What is Youtube's valuation now?
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