Over a year ago getting funding for web based project in the UK was an almost impossible task. The VC community seemed to be so focussed on mobile that only a handful of start ups received that oh so essential cash injection. There are some amazing sites in development – Design The Time has huge promise – but I do wonder if we are in the midst of a gold rush that will inevitably lead to a crash.
Many of the new sites are tech based projects which are solely based on user generated content with readers uploading images, videos etc and then checking out each others profiles.
Now while this has been hugely successful for the big hitters like YouTube, Wikipedia and MySpace and I suspect it will work in some vertical channels, I do think that there will soon be a huge number of sites chasing the small percentage of online users who actually create and upload content on a regular basis.
Of course I may be proved wrong, especially as content upload systems become easier and easier to use, but with more and more established media companies embracing UGC, the chances of start ups striking YouTube type gold seem to be starting to recede.
