Ouch…if you’re an adult over 25 years of age, you may be concerned or deeply concerned about the latest economic slowdown.  Business week, CNN, The Economist etc. all seem to agree we are not gonna go through a fun period.  What about the web industry?

Now, Internet specialist seem divided: some say we might benefit from the slowdown, others believe we will not be spared.  I fear the second option may be more plausible.

It’s funny to see so many new web applications coming out everyday.  In fact, it’s almost insane; keeping track of everything can be very hard, if not impossible.  Despite all these new gadgets, widgets and apps, not much innovation has come out of the e-business world.  Advertising is, by far, the most dominating model out there…that’s a bad thing for times like these.

Back in 2006, Google bought Youtube for the small sum of 1.65 billion dollars.  eBay bought Skype for 2.6 billion dollars and StumbleUpon for 75 million dollars and the list goes on.  The point is, while some big online companies are investing massive amounts of money, they all seem to be having problems monetizing them.  But let’s go back a bit: why are they capable of investing so much?  Because they are capable of obtaining credit card numbers.  Yes, some people are actually paying for their services.

I think paying for a service is just normal.  What’s not normal is getting services for free.  Ok, so free is cool (I admit that!!!), but let’s face it; I don’t think we’ll be capable of sustaining this much longer.  While he may not be an Internet expert, French President Sarkozy said it best during one of his speaches regarding the press financial crisis in France:’It is false to think advertising will one day sustain the press’.  Maybe Chris Anderson’s book Free will prove wrong…unfortunately!