BizSugar.com › Products and Services › Internet Wars: Version 2.0

Is there another technology bubble in the making? This question has exercised the media and markets since the extraordinary post-IPO performance of LinkedIn, the social network for professionals. Social-sales aggregator Groupon has recently suggested that conventional valuation methods are obsolete and this has only reinforced parallels with the anything-goes internet IPOs of the early 2000s.Social-networking firms are commanding hefty valuations, but investors must distinguish between social utility networks, like Facebook or LinkedIn, and the businesses that rely on them. The networks have the potential to exploit these businesses, distort the freedom of the Internet and stifle innovation. One relevant example has emerged within the social-gaming industry.