Let's Party Like It's 1999

They say that conventional wisdom is wrong.

If that is so, then maybe we aren’t in bubble 2.0, because everywhere I look this morning, I am hearing we are back in 1999.

First there is David Carr’s confusing argument why we should pay for the NY Times. I am with David’s daughter in case you wondered.  In the piece, David says:

We have been through this before, back in 1999, with everyone rushing
to harvest eyeballs and then worrying about making them cash-flow
later. But this time around, at least on the Web, there is a business
model that involves search, targeted advertising and the ability to
scale.

Then there is Rebecca Buckman’s roundup on VC investing in the WSJ (no link love for paid content).  Rebecca opens up that piece with:

It’s looking almost like 1999 again in Silicon Valley, with Internet
investments snaring a significant increase in funding from venture
capitalists in the third quarter.

It certainly looks like 1999 from where I sit too but I’ve always been served best by being a contrarian.  Tough call.