The greatest defunct Web sites and dotcom disasters

By Nate Lanxon on 05 June 2008, 10:45am

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Pets.com (1998-2000; precursor to: PetPlanet, et al)

A company that goes public and subsequently liquidates itself within a year is a classic example of what the Internet bubble burst did to businesses. Pets.com was the classic example of this classic example, and no-one felt the wrath of the immature online shopping world as much as Pets.com, or more to the point, its risk-taking founders and investors.

Pets.com sold pet food and accessories in 2000, and like Webvan spent hundreds of millions of dollars on infrastructure, marketing and warehousing, but discovered it would take anything up to five years just to be earning the $300m a year it needed to earn to simply break even.

Hesitant customers
This was a time where countless millions upon millions of people who are online today were just considering buying a modem, and far away from putting their credit card details on to "this Internet thing everyone's talking about".

So when the company tanked, high-profile publications jumped all over it, commenting on how dangerous a space Internet business was at the time.

If you ever bought anything from Pets.com, hopefully you still own it, because it's a fine memento of the days where it was possible for a business to lose money almost as fast as a football club.