Web 2.0 is Changing Consumer Pattern! Date:   Thursday , March 31, 2011 This is the era of Internet and there is a large movement towards consumer shopping. It is different from what we saw in Web 1.0 which was shaped by Amazon and eBay. Now, the same is undergoing a re-invention as consumer behavior like ‘how people purchase’, ‘how they make decision’, ‘how companies cater to those purchases’ and more are making in-roads. Today the shopping is research based and mobiles have come to play a very important role. There are apps to help consumers get instant reviews on what is out there in the stores before they go out there to make a physical purchase. Similarly, Web 2.0 led by social networking is forcing the consumers to change their purchasing behavior. Facebook and Twitter has leveraged social interaction tremendously and this is having a direct impact on a consumer’s purchasing behavior. One can easily connect with their friends and ask for their opinion before making a purchase. For Startups today, it is important not only to build a cool product but also bring innovation into the business model so that it is monetizing. This is important in terms of funding as VC’s are becoming more and more discriminating into what and where they invest. With globalization, the biggest challenge for an entrepreneur is to collaborate with his teams across the world. Ten years ago, when one started a company with 5 or 6 people in the office, one could walk to someone’s desk and ask how the UI is developing or how a mobile app coming along. But now with the emails and twitters and setting up a collaboration projects online with the teams virtually, is a challenge when quality comes into question. The next challenge is to find the right people to either join you or become partners with. With a lot of people out there doing similar work; to find the right partner can involve a lot of prescreening. In case of large companies the problem is that the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing. They launch a project, there is another team doing a similar project and a lot of miscommunication tend to happen. Apart from these challenges, it is fairly exciting times to be an entrepreneur.