At the WebGUI Users Conference I had a meeting with the presidents of a dozen other WebGUI businesses (companies that derive much or all of their revenue from WebGUI related products and services), and I've spoken to many of them several times since then. Even though the overall economy of the world has been shrinking over the past six months or so, all of these businesses (including Plain Black) are not only doing well, we're all growing. Are times tougher now than 12 months ago? Sure, but we're all still growing.

Speaking of economies, at the WUC we launched the Bazaar and the new Karma system. Those have been growing in usage steadily too. We made our first payments to people that have been selling items in the Bazaar in October, so that economy has officially kicked off. And we're seeing more and more people looking to put stuff in the Bazaar for sale. And we've had about a dozen people purchase items with their karma, and hundreds of people spending their karma on RFE's. In fact, there's at least one RFE on the front page right now that has more than 10,000 karma donated from various sources.

And finally, in the past two months I've noticed at least five new WebGUI businesses spring up. You heard that right, new businesses forming during the roughest economic period that the U.S. has faced in nearly 100 years. The WebGUI market is worth millions of dollars per month, but these businesses aren't poaching from a small set of clients, they're creating new new clients and thusly new WebGUI users out of dust and ash. 

Even with economy's shrinking around the world, the WebGUI economy is growing. The future looks bright for WebGUI, and that puts a smile on my face.