Krim (Netvibes CEO): Widgets will generate revenues

Hi,

here my transcript of an interesting video in French of the closing keynote speech on the subject of Advertising and Web 2.0 by Tariq Krim, founder and CEO of Netvibes.



The event was the AD:TECH PARIS 6th - 7th March 2007, Palais des Congrès, Paris and Netvibes did not yet published the Coriander Version with more custimization possibilities and the Universes were not available.



The Video is interesting in that you can feel the hesitation and the doubts of Tariq Krim about the revenue side of Netvibes compared with the easy speech he can show when he speaks about services and usability of Netvibes. He says many times that Netvibes is what he needs himself.

You really can feel that the business model is very very vague and that must have been the cause of the departure of WEB 1.0 entrepreneur Pierre Chappaz from Netvibes.



CLOSING KEYNOTE: Advertsing in 2.0 era



[the following are theText of the slides presented by Tariq Krim]



Time is a strategic choice

Attention is a personal choice

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Our digital life is growing... out of control

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Netvibes is about where you focus

your interests

your attention

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Netvibes is about you -

No advertising.

No logos.

No corporate control on the page - 100% user control and creation -

Community (Netvibes Ecosystem) provide the content

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NETVIBES TODAY (march 2007)

15 month old - translated into 80+ languages, done entirely by users

More than 12.000 Feeds, Modules, Podcasts, Calendars and Shared tabs made by users

More than 1 million unique RSS feeds managed by Netvibes

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And your Brand ?

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In all this, RSS is a smart distribution channel but it is still ... boring!

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Netvibes makes RSS sexier for: photos, videos, music, flash

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Working on an unfinished business

(web 1.0) -free the data

(Web 2.0) -free the Application

(Netvibes ) -free the User

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How it will happen: -

the end of the web page -

the end of the browser (as we know it) -

the deportalisation: break the web in small independent pieces of living information: WIDGETS

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Introducing Universal Widget API: build your netvibes widget and make (it) available on every widget platform, blog,... Write once, run everywhere! Netvibes, Dashboard, Google,...

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Universal Widget API (UWA) - Opensource Javascript runtime - Netvibes UI library for your own widgets - building with our community a wall of APIs

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Coming today on our developers network

http://developers.netvibes.com/



[After the slides, there was some kind of questions and answers. Here is my summary]



Q: How brands (not from the Web world) can integrate the Web ?

A: with the widget. Brands will create and offer their own widget. ex: CocaCola could offer a Music Channel widget ...



The concept is to give to every individual users an individual information but you need to be trusted (best is the friends community)



Widget is stronger than Ad because you choose it, you installed it, you like it and you trusted who sent it you!



Q: What are the New trends in Advertising with WEB 2.0 ?

A : The future will see less interest in just the Audience rate but more interest in the Attention rate of the user! Because of the stronger relation with the users that chooses his own piece of information where and when he wants it.



Q ( from CEO yahoo france): what is Netvibes' business model ?

A: the Widgets will generate revenues: by affiliation.

Let's say Ebay does not need new users (because it has already a very big audience) but Ebay needs to create a stronger relation with each user (that will translate in longer time with the service and then bigger revenues) . Ebay is less interested in Audience rate than in the Attention rate of its users.



Q: What are your revenues now (March 2007)

A: At the moment Netvibes has not significative revenues as we concentrate on increasing our user base (almost 10 millions) . You can not create revenues and, at the same time, increase your audience. We choose audience. We want a better product (ex coriander) , a new mobile version, better usability , new services, a Chinese version;



With an Higher Quality World Audience, we could think of pre-roll widgets, as with the ads before the videos. Widgets could be sponsorised. RSS has potential



Q: DO you have technological patents ?

A: Netvibes has just started first and is a good service.

Netvibes creates an ATTENTION NETWORK: created by the user.



Q: who is afraid of Netvibes?

A: Nobody. There is space for everybody...



Q: Who will buy you?

A: ... (with a large smile) . Many WEB 2.0 actors just thought about being bought by the Big Fishes and forgot to ask for enough starting money... We obtained ... 12 millions Euros...