Perhaps I am mistaken however no one is calling anything dead, they are simply switching strategies. In my opinion B2B wins hands down when the product could be used equally by businesses and consumers at a minimum.
When I started VisiDraft a year and a half ago, my strategy was B2B because my clientele would be using the product for work. I could as easily have structured my plan to have a consumer facing application but based on what I encountered it was a no brainer.
Microsoft, Apple, HP, IBM all of these name makers started as B2B companies. Why? Several reasons. You only have to sell to a few people, making your traction and revenues immediately positive. In addition, it allows a much more intimate feedback loop for iterations when you actually work hand in hand with another business designing solutions for them. you are basically getting another partner with domain expertise - you don't get that with B2C. It allows you to grow without losing a huge chunk of your business - in my experience most companies don't want anything to do with owning a chunk of a start up.
I am quite confident that no one is saying that B2C is over, and in fact a good number of software developments don't fit into a B2B model. Where there is equal ability to face consumers or other businesses, I will always opt to the business.
The last thing I will say is: Businesses around the world are sitting on +2T in cash right now. VC's aren't anywhere close to that and they rely on consumers to go buy things, which is looking pretty flat currently at least in the US. Go where the money is.
however, there is plenty of growth in consumer spending and particularly in online ecommerce all over the world. while I won't disagree corporations are also sitting on lots of cash, it's certainly not the case that consumer online spending is flat, even in the US (& absolutely not around the world).
Apple definitely didn't start as a B2B company. They sold computers to individuals, and if businesses happened to buy, that was fine too. Apple had some limited success in the educational market in the 1980s, but PCs dominated the business market (and still do.)
When I started VisiDraft a year and a half ago, my strategy was B2B because my clientele would be using the product for work. I could as easily have structured my plan to have a consumer facing application but based on what I encountered it was a no brainer.
Microsoft, Apple, HP, IBM all of these name makers started as B2B companies. Why? Several reasons. You only have to sell to a few people, making your traction and revenues immediately positive. In addition, it allows a much more intimate feedback loop for iterations when you actually work hand in hand with another business designing solutions for them. you are basically getting another partner with domain expertise - you don't get that with B2C. It allows you to grow without losing a huge chunk of your business - in my experience most companies don't want anything to do with owning a chunk of a start up.
I am quite confident that no one is saying that B2C is over, and in fact a good number of software developments don't fit into a B2B model. Where there is equal ability to face consumers or other businesses, I will always opt to the business.
The last thing I will say is: Businesses around the world are sitting on +2T in cash right now. VC's aren't anywhere close to that and they rely on consumers to go buy things, which is looking pretty flat currently at least in the US. Go where the money is.