Abstract:
The Business Model is a meaningful concept that rings a bell for a growing number of people. Even though there’s a lack of consensus on what it is exactly and how we define it, the common sense is understood by a vast majority. In a similar way Web 2.0 is another “umbrella” term that makes sense for a number of people without having any clear definition given over the years. The aim of this paper is to provide a comprehensive analysis of these two concepts and to explain their specific relationship. The Business Model literature has been considerably developed during the first blooming of what we called the dot com era. It has been necessary for web-based entrepreneurs to explain how they intend to generate and capture a sustained economic growth over the Internet. Back then; the concept of Business Model was very helpful to pedagogically explain the functioning of these new ventures. The term Web 2.0 appeared in 2003 to describe the specific characteristics of the robust Business Models that had survived the dot com crash. Web 2.0 is intrinsically related to the concept of Business Model. In this paper, we take a historical perspective of the relation between web evolutions and the developments of business model literature. Then we’ll examine how web 2.0 is redefining the very notion of business model by blurring the traditional representations and roles of enterprise, client, market and price. Finally, a critical perspective of web 2.0 is proposed to analyse the new web-based business models in an economy based on the illusion of free.
