I have found out this list of TOP 3O earning websites in the world. This list was created by Michael Dunlop, a young web entrepreneur that run a very interesting blog named IncomeDiary

And waow ! The figures are just amazing. For example, Google is earning 691 dollars every second. Facebook - I am still puzzling about its fundamental interest for mankind - is making a poor - in comparison to Google - 9,51 $ every second. But it's still 300 Millions bucks a year. The same amount as Youtube.

Of course, you find in the list, all the stars of the internet such as ebay, Yahoo, Amazon, Myspace or Paypal.

But what stupefies me the most in this list, is not the money these websites earn .. it's the following points :

- I don't know a good third of these websites. (That's strange and great in the same time. Strange because an old-wannabe-geek like me should know everything on such a topic. Great because I have some great hours of exploration and discovering in front of me to get to know these unknown websites.) For a foreigner, the big websites are not so "big" as they are supposed to.

- There is not a single French website in the batch. Some are global but a lot only operate on US territory. Globalization of Internet as a unique market is not yet here, pals.

- Twitter is NOT on the list. Whereas it should as it's as useful as Facebook, and now growing at a faster rate. Well, too young a service to earn billions I guess.

- Some companies are in a situation of quasi-monopole (who's really competing with Google or Paypal for example ? What service rivals Skype ?). That should explain such huge incomes.

- The revenues of these websites are impressive but are not still reaching those of the good old "mortar businesses". Microsoft's announces $51.12 billion revenues in 2007. That's more than twice what Google is making. And there are few chances that it changes in the years to come.

The list arises also a few questions :

- How much of these websites are profitable ?

- How much money have been spend to found the services ?

- As all websites don't have the same age, which are the ones that had been growing faster ?

- What are similar websites in other countries earning ?

- What position the founders or owners occupies in Forbes billionaires list ?

Well, to conclude, I would like to ask you if 10 or 15 years before, you could have imagined that Internet based companies could make so much money is so little time ?

"The Internet? We are not interested in it" -- Bill Gates, 1993

source : Myxi