Top 10 Dotcom Bombs

Because of CNet’s really, really, really annoying tendency to spread simple lists across eleven slow-loading pages just to rack up pageviews, I present to you their countdown of top ten dotcom bombs in one post.

10. JenniCam
Proof that you can eventually get tired of giving live sex shows. Yes, I’m looking at you, Justin.

9. Boo.com
Talk about being doomed from the name. Four hundered employees where only thirty were needed; an animated shop assistant where a recommendation engine would have sufficed. One of the biggest ways to fail in an online business is to not see its inherent cost efficiencies over offline analogues.

8. Heat.net
It could have been Xfire or Xbox Live. Instead, it became just another missed opportunity for Sega.

7. Nupedia
This precursor to Wikipedia featured editorial control. As Wikipedia proves today, editorial control has little place in consumer-generated media.

6. Webvan
This spectacularly bloated dotcom bomb proves getting big fast doesn’t work on the Web. Steady organic growth FTW.

5. Beenz
Funny money FTL.

4. Pets.com
Webvan for dogs.

3. AudioGalaxy
I actually remember promoting a client’s music on this post-Napster pre-BitTorrent P2P service, and getting good results. Unfortunately, AudioGalaxy was martyred by the RIAA.

2. Stage6
Not a dotcom era bomb, but a modern tale of Woe 2.0. Proof that most big corporations have no idea how to leverage a good thing. Way to kill a well-loved high-quality video site, DivX CEO Kevin Hell.

1. Almost every search engine that wasn’t Google
Any bets Yahoo and MS Live will end up in this deadpool? ;)

(Image by SatireWire.)