If we're talking about the web 2.0, if we're talking about the kind of ideas and start ups that any web entrepreneur could easily get going if they only had the inspiration, then we'll go ahead and forgo the giants and web-empires like Google and focus on the start ups that were begun by one or two guys in a college dorm somewhere on a budget of peanuts and then took off to become massive forces on the web. Here are the five most profitable and most successful internet start ups of all time, web sites that prove that all you need is a good idea to change the world.
The Most Profitable Internet Startups of All Time
Facebook is responsible for making Mark Zuckerberg the world's youngest billionaire. The details found within "The Social Network" may be highly fictionalized, but the fact remains that Facebook shot up overnight as one of the most astounding and surprising success stories in the history of the web.
Youtube
Youtube wasn't always so profitable. There was a time when the site was actually costing its founders money, but once Google bought the site for over one and a half billion dollars it's been thoroughly monetized with sponsored videos and licensed content.
Digg
Exact figures are hard to find, but with one million regular users, more than one hundred eighteen million page views a month, and rumors of a pending buyout with Fox Interactive, Digg is undeniably making somebody very, very rich right now.
Bebo
Another website where the exact figures are hard to find, but Bebo recently rejected a buyout offer for a half billion dollars, holding out for a cool one billion. The four billion page views a month may help to explain why the founders of Bebo can afford to play hard ball in negotiations.
MySpace
MySpace became the most well known and iconic web start up in the last decade, and while it has since largely been replaced in the public consciousness by Facebook and Twitter, it still remains a major force on the web today and one of the most profitable start ups of all time. The site still boasts forty billion page views a month, even now, and was sold to Rupert Murdoch in 2005 for more than a half billion dollars, making "Tom" a very rich person right now.
There are essentially two ways for a startup to be profitable for its founders. Mark Zuckerberg has managed to become a billionaire by holding onto Facebook and hiring on the staff he needs to keep it running, while others, such as the founders of Youtube, needed only get the idea off the ground and sell it off to the highest bidder. In any event, all of these sites prove that a good idea and a little web design know how is really all you need to be a major player in the modern financial world.