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Of all sectors receiving venture capital investment, the most diverse in terms of area of investment is undoubtedly the internet sector. CB Insights breaks down the internet sector into ecommerce and software and services, and within internet software & services, we define 50 further sub-industries to allow our subscribers a great deal of granularity to identify companies of interest. And even with our finely tuned slicing, we consistently see investment across all of these sub-industries from quarter to quarter.
But as we look back at the last four quarters (Q2 2009 to Q1 2010), we do observe that there are 4 sub-industries which command almost 40% of total internet software & services dollars, e.g. the Four Horsemen of Internet Software & Services.
- Advertising-related – Ad networks and exchanges + technologies to optimize online advertising spend.
- Social – Even with Facebook and Twitter’s prominence, a wide variety of investments in social companies continues.
- Gaming – Whether is simple online games or massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs)
- Information Providers – Structured information or UGC destinations around specific verticals a la Yelp, Angie’s List
To view and download data on the Four Horsemen of the Internet Software & Services sub-industry, logon to CB Insights.