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.
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Comments 7
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Anonymous 14 October, 2010 21:45
What about theglobe.com? It's still a website, but it's old community format was predecessor to sites such as Facebook and Myspace. In my opinion, there were features on it that the other social networking sites should use. Remember The Crypt and Twenty Something?
Anonymous 7 July, 2011 09:51
Excellent for this site, I'm glad to read it
thanks for sharing
Anonymous 7 July, 2011 09:56
thanks for sharing helpful information and tips, Excellent work for this site, i liked to read this
Reptile supplies
anonymous 7 January, 2012 09:38
Heat.net was free, it was premium for 10 dollars which allowed you to spend the degrees. Get your foocking facts straight you goooddamhn hack.
Thomas McGrath 25 June, 2012 21:46
I played on Heat.net all the time, and I was premium player "I always wonder how they made money even witht he 10 a month players would pay" , I got enough degrees every month to buy between 2 to 4 games a month from the game store . And I didn't even play as much as other did . I know people would set up games with friends "password them" and just sit in there all night and not play and just earn degrees "this is why the site went under..people was making to much degrees ,compared to the money they made a month... there was so much you could buy with degrees...and every month I'd get a package with snacks "cds" and things...was a great idea , if they just limit how many degress you could earn a day or week..I think the site would of lived longer if it weren't for the milkers
anonymous 16 July, 2012 11:06
I get surprised after reading that Boo.com had only managed£200,000. It is really disappointment . theglobe.com is still working this is good for this website.
http://www.tradefurniturecompany.co.uk/
anonymous 24 February, 2013 11:03
As an update Webvan is back in action...powered by Amazon