David Hauser

Everyone has predictions for 2010; I’ve read many blog posts about the top M&A deals that will happen, what industries will be hot for VC money, and what will happen in social media. So I’ve decided to throw my hat into the ring and put out my own prediction:

2010, the first year of the new decade, will be the year of monetization.

Everyone is tired of gobbling up great ideas that are really just based in theory and not in practice. 2010 will be the year of practical application, and subsequently, monetization.

Why this sudden shift, you ask? Simple: times are tough and it has underscored the need for viable business ventures, not just pie-in-the-sky dreams. People don’t want to be involved only in speculative ventures at the moment, and this feeling is fueling the move towards monetization. These sorts of things also seem to be cyclical and we’re at a point in the cycle where we’ve already seen a lot of media mega-start-ups, big investments, and an entire book written on the freemium model. Now it’s time to move forward. To put it simply, we’re finally reaching the, “Crap, we need to actually make money!” stage.

Want proof? It seems that the struggling newspaper industry is finally realizing that giving away content for free on the web doesn’t make any sense, and even though actual implementation of a paying model doesn’t start until 2011, the move is beginning in 2010. The New York Times just announced, “Starting in early 2011, visitors to NYTimes.com will get a certain number of articles free every month before being asked to pay a flat fee for access.” And this is just the beginning.

It may have taken a while for the Times to realize this, but the movement towards monetization won’t be as delayed for other industries. As VCs get better valuations for themselves, tighter on deals (and hopefully smarter on them, too) we’re going to see actual monetization occur more and more. The monetization of the Times is just the beginning. It’s also the least exciting, in my book. What will be more interesting? The push for more bootstrapped companies, and for growing profitable ideas that actually charge customers money. Revolutionary concepts, huh?

With the shift towards monetization, we will see companies become agile and get a minimum viable product to market quickly while focusing on value generation. This is a movement I hope to contribute to with some of the companies I’ve founded. For example, with Chargify, we’ll be giving companies of any size and stage an easy way to utilize a recurring billing or freemium model with managed billing.

I’m really looking forward to watching what happens this year, especially if we finally get to see some businesses that aren’t just supported by advertising, but rather, real value and solid product offerings.