Understanding Web 2.0 service models: A knowledge‐creating perspective

We examined Web 2.0 services that provide different levels of knowledge exploitation and developed a framework for classifying existing service models from a knowledge‐creation perspective. More than 1000 Web 2.0 application sites were analyzed and classified. We termed the two types of service platforms: Experience‐Socialization and Intelligence‐Proliferation. These involved four types of service models that we termed as Exchanger, Aggregator, Collaborator, and Liberator. These models show the diversity of existing Web 2.0 applications and provide a framework for a better understanding of operating patterns and value propositions within the Web 2.0 paradigm.