We’ve been writing a lot about some of the frothy conditions in the tech market. And the bubble talk was highlighted today when money-losing online radio service Pandora went public with a $3 billion valuation, and last month when Microsoft agreed to shell out $8.5 billion for Skype. Now, the folks over at Udemy, have compiled an informative infographic that puts the bubble in perspective. (See below).
As I’ve noted in the past, this bubble is different from the last one when companies with next to no revenue and massive losses were able to price shares on public exchanges. At least in this case, some of the companies going public have significant revenue (and in some cases) profits. The bubble talk, at least for now, is being driven by a small number of companies like Facebook, Twitter, Groupon and Zynga.
Also, the infographic doesn’t compare the venture capital numbers from the first dot-com boom of 1999 and 2000 to today’s levels. At the current pace of investment, VCs are expected to invest roughly $30 billion in the U.S. That compares to $101 billion in 2000.
Of course, things have changed in the venture capital market in the past decade. But, even so, I don’t think we will ever see anything quite like that again. Of course, bubbles can come in all shapes and sizes, and this one might just simply have different characteristics. We will see how it takes shape in the coming months.
Previously on GeekWire: “Poll: Marc Andreessen doesn’t think there’s a bubble: Do you?”
Via Column Five for Udemy
