Much has been written about Web 2.0 over the past year or two. We have observed the rapid rise of online giants such as MySpace, Facebook, YouTube and Flickr. The value, or at least perceived value, of these companies has grown along with their user bases – YouTube was bought for $1.65 billion, MySpace was snatched by News Corp for $580 million back in 2005 and Facebook is worth $15 billion. However, many critics question the business value of these communities. The advertising model has proven less lucrative than expected as companies struggle to monetize their user bases and traffic. Many point to Facebook’s failed Beacon platform as an example of the difficulties of extracting value from Web 2.0.

The business model savior of Web 2.0 may come in the form of Enterprise 2.0. According to Forrester, companies are set to spend $5 billion on social networking by 2013. The report also states that 56% of North American companies see Web 2.0 as high priority in 2008. The urgency is well founded as companies struggle to give their employees tools that they already use on the open internet and have come to expect in the workplace. However, in contrast to tools on the open internet, companies need to pay much more attention to things like information quality and security, compliance, current business processes and decision making structures. Hence the opportunity for Web 2.0 companies to customize and create offerings that take into account the unique needs of the Enterprise 2.0. Lucrative subscription and software sales revenues will follow. Can you say Facebook Inside?