Among the business people gathered in San Francisco last week for the annual Web 2.0 Summit, there was little doubt that the second Internet boom will be just as transformative as the first. The connected pocket computer (otherwise known as a smartphone) and the social Web have created monster new markets, as more than one speaker noted, and the money is flowing accordingly.
Much of that money is flowing to the Bay Area, home to what are arguably the four most important companies of today’s consumer Internet: Google, Apple, Facebook and Twitter. Apple and Google are the second and sixth most valuable public companies by market cap in the country, respectively. The other two are commanding private-market valuations in the billions.
But the business contours of the industry are still taking shape, and how they evolve over the next couple of years will go a long way toward drawing the new economic geography of Silicon Valley.
To read the full, original article click on this link: Internet Giants Foster, and Threaten, Innovation Economy - NYTimes.com
Author: JONATHAN WEBER
