Ryan
21. MutualFunds.com
MutualFunds.com is featured in the “Ebutuaries.com” list of once promising web companies that wound up failing. Despite a very attractive domain name from which to build a business, the company ultimately folded on September 20, 2000, posting only a note that it was selling its domain to recoup its investment and focus on “other services for the financial services industry.” Exactly what caused MutualFunds.com to fold is unclear.
22. Friendster
While Friendster is reemerging as a dominant force overseas in the field of social networking, time wasn’t long ago when the once-mighty company was on its last legs. A New York Times article wonders “what happened to Friendster?” and chastises it for passing up “a billion dollar opportunity” during the height of its success. Many have privately speculated that there was no one thing Friendster did wrong. Rather, they believe, people just use whatever site their friends use, which, eventually, became MySpace and Facebook instead. Regardless, Friendster boasts one of the more high-profile “fall from grace” stories in recent years.
23. PlanetRX
PlanetRX’s bright idea was to bring the buying and filling of prescription drugs to the Internet. Unfortunately, this proved to be an ill-fated leap of faith, as the site closed up with little more than a regretful note on its website stating that its services would cease to be made available.
24. NetZero
A ZDNet article pretty much tells the whole story with its headline “NetZero has no cash, no outlook.” After years of aggressively advertising itself on television and in magazines as a free, ad-supported Internet service, NetZero was reduced to buying dying enterprises in bankruptcy court as a last-ditch effort to stay afloat. While the company’s chief executive promised a bright future, this analyst was less optimistic.
[NetZero chief] “Goldston must have had the Ouija board, because I don’t see enough facts to justify taking a chance on the stock.”
25. KaZaA
At the height of its success, KaZaA led the world in file sharing userbase, boasting 50 million active, online file traders at any given. But as the site slowly became overrun with recording industry watchdogs and bots planting fake songs in efforts to plant evidence for piracy lawsuits, the userbase became much less welcoming. Sharman Networks, the company who acquired KaZaZ from Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friss, has also found itself targeted in numerous lawsuits by the entertainment industry which have only recently stopped pouring in. Though still alive in many different forms, KaZaA is no longer the dominant force for copyright infringement or the harbinger of change in the industry that people once hoped.
