Web 3.0 Is Already Here

I had this realization as I was reading my friend Matt Turck's TechCrunch post, The Internet of Things Is Reaching Escape Velocity. Matt referred to the Web 1.0 giants as being Google and Amazon, and Web 2.0 being Facebook and Twitter. The speculation then, is will there be a similar pair of giants to come out of Web 3.0?


The answer is there already is. If Web 1.0 was connecting computers with their data; and Web 2.0 was about connecting people with their data; then Web 3.0 is about connecting people with their things. Thing-to-thing might be Internet but it will never be Web, because Web implies the user interface level. There might be a Web 4.0 that is more advanced than we can imagine at this stage, but it's going to have people/users in it.

Web 3.0 is what we more commonly call Mobile, but I'm going to be more specific because it is both mobile and desktop, but also not all of what we consider mobile is Web 3.0. It's mobile in the sense of, apps that only work out in the world, like Uber or AirBNB; they're not physically tethered to a domain in your control. Their experience very quickly requires mobility. Ie. you can get the full Google/Amazon/FB/Twitter experience without leaving the house. Just try using doing that with AirBNB (unless you're the host). Indeed, Uber and AirBNB are so far the Facebook and Twitter of Web 3.0. Uber was recently valued at $40Bn, or 1.6 times Twitter's market cap; while AirBNB was valued at $13B, after only 6 years.

A corollary I will write about another time is that e-commerce 1.0 was letting you buy things; e-commerce 2.0 was letting you discover things; e-commerce 3.0 is letting you buy services and experiences including those that may never have existed before.