The
Museum of Modern Betas is an excellent resource for finding out trends in (beta) web
apps. A new list that caught my eye recently was the Beta Quotient for
Germany – i.e. a list of 100 web 2.0 apps from Germany (betas and non-betas).
Germany has a beta quotient of “more than 50%”, but what I really wanted to know
was: what are the top web apps in Germany? I asked Markus from MoMB, who actually
lives in Germany, what he thought the top german web apps are. Based on his responses,
here is my summary:
According to Markus, openBC and spreadshirt are “the poster children” of web 2.0
in Germany and probably ranked 1 and 2 in terms of native web 2.0 sites. Both have a
german language interface when you come from a german IP address.
openBC is a business-focused social
networking app – at first glance similar to LinkedIn. It is also multilingual, with an eye on the
international business market. I was able to look around the english version of the site
and it seems to offer a bit more than LinkedIn – e.g. over 2,000 groups to get access to
specialist knowledge and expertise.
spreadshirt is what appears to be a
tee-shirt printing online shop. It looks similar to CafePress, the US website that does the same
thing.
Other top German Web 2.0 sites are:
studiverzeichnis – a Facebook clone that
claims to have 250,000 users. Apparently Facebook plans to enter the german market soon
though…
lycos iq – similar to Yahoo Answers.
qype – user generated reviews of locations;
currently 5000 users, but gaining steam says Markus.
sevenload – a Youtube/Flickr hybrid.
hitflip – a social media (cds, dvds,
games) trading site.
photocase – photo sharing site.
mister wong – social bookmarking
(excellent name!).
yigg – a digg clone that has a hamster for a
logo.
Thanks Markus for all the info about the German 2.0 market!
I’d love to get similar info about
other international markets, so contact me if you’d like to contribute your country’s top web apps. The tech blogosphere gets so insular about the US sometimes.
It’s good to remind ourselves now and then that a whole world exists beyond Silicon
Valley.