Is MOO a Web 2.0 company?

So, I received my set of MOO bizcards this morning, in time for the Berlin Web 2.0 Expo next week* (they are the normal sized ones, I don't like those get-lost-in-the-trouser-seam little things ) . They are truly beautiful to behold. I even heard MOO's Richard Moross speak at Future of Web Apps 2 years ago, and he is very good. But as I looked at the cards, I thought to myself - why is MOO even at a Web 2.0 conference - I mean, they aren't a Web 2.0 company really.

And by this I don't mean that they are not a digital media business, and are instead a good old physical world manufacturer and retailer**

No, its because they do something else, something unheard of in the Web 2.0 world, something that is potentially totally anarchic, even revolutionary, in the sector. You see, along with the cards came another, very digital product. It was an invoice!

Yes, a real invoice - for real money - that I actually had to pay, or else they wouldn't give me the goods!

Talk about a new paradigm! Imagine the total destabilisation of the Web 2.0 ecosystem if companies all invoiced us for their services and we had to pay - Twitter would have a business model instantly!***

What it would do of course is rapidly sort out the "real" businesses, that added sufficient value that people were prepared to pay, from the chaff.

Of course, a proper Web 2.0 consultant would soon see them right, and insist they move to an Ad model - MOO banners on the Bizcard, google Adwords on the back, that sort of thing. And blog, blog blog it all

*Where I'm speaking, on limits to Web 2.0 business models etc funnily enough

**the main lesson with MOO is in fact what a Good Ole business can do with a great online presence - Enterprise 2.0 in action!

***In fact, reflecting further, the only other "Web 2.0" labelled people who actually charge money are conference organisers. Its the old jeans and gold rush analogy again methinks