What is web 2.0? It could be ajax, peer economy, etc . . etc. . . but really who cares . .. the numbers speaks for itself (the banker and engineer in me wakes up)

Google - 7.6B global searches (+74% Y/Y, 5/05); 384MM global unique visitors (+36%, 5/05) per comScore
Broadband 179MM global subscribers (+45% Y/Y, CQ2); 57MM in Asia; 45MM in N. America
Yahoo! 917MM streaming video (music…) sessions (+119% Y/Y, CQ4)
Digital Music 695MM cumulative iTunes as of 9/05; 6MM iPods sold in CQ2:05 (+295% Y/Y)
Personalization 40MM+ estimated My Yahoo! users
Tencent 16MM peak simultaneous Instant Message users, China, CQ2
Blogging 27% of US Internet users read blogs, 11/04
Ringtones $3B annualized ringtone sales (Informa 5/05) - vs. $495MM cumulative iTunes sales (7/05)
VoIP 54MM registered Skype users (9/05) - fastest product ramp ever?
Denmark VOIP minutes > landline voice minutes
MobileMessaging 1.1T SMSs sent with $50B in revenue in 2004 (Informa 5/05); more emails sent in Japan via mobile than PC (DoCoMo 2005)
PayPal 79MM accounts (+56% Y/Y, CQ2); 23MM users (+48% Y/Y)
Mobile Payments 4MM+ NTT DoCoMo wallet phone users (CQ1) in Japan
Global N. America = 23% of Internet users in 2005; was 66% in 1995
S. Korea Broadband penetration of 70%+ - No. 1 in world
China More Internet users < age of 30 than anywhere

No, I do not care whether there is too many startups and whether any or all of them will fail (not in the macro sense I dont). But do care that the world around me is changing, and it will never be the same again. 2 years ago, in the troughs of valley’s depression the numbers are very very different than what it is today. So its not just the hype (which they are plenty) but really , the world has changed since 2003.

BTW the #’s are quoted from Mary Meeker’s presentation here