Dot com failures - case study group?

John Scott · 10-15-2003, 08:18 AM

I'm wondering if you have any other members who would like to start some discussions/ case studies of some dot com failures.

We could go over the marketing strategies and see just what what failure.

If you're interested, let me know.

Bubo · 10-15-2003, 08:25 AM

I'd be interested, but I want to finish my article series first. It'll help me understand the concepts better before I attempt to dissect them.

John Scott · 10-15-2003, 08:31 AM

Sounds good.

AcRoNym · 10-15-2003, 11:36 AM

sometimes it comes down to borrowing too much cant remember the dot com but they were making around £70,000 a week but outgoings in marketing was around £150,000 per week

UKZJ007 · 10-22-2003, 10:04 AM

quite alot of money for a site.

How much did this site cost initially?

edbarton · 10-22-2003, 11:13 AM

Sounds good, a lot of these marketing topics really interest me

AcRoNym · 10-22-2003, 02:50 PM

www.boo.com

Bubo · 10-22-2003, 03:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AcRoNym

.www.boo.com

Uhm, what about this site?

John Scott · 10-22-2003, 03:54 PM

I want to look at Pets.com, Living.com, and WebVan.com. Bubo is in charge of research.

I'm sure there are a ton of dot com failures that we'll find more than educational.

AcRoNym · 10-23-2003, 09:56 AM

they went balls up.. but now are back maybe

Bubo · 10-23-2003, 09:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JohnScott

Bubo is in charge of research.

Oh bloody 'ell. You do realize that I have had a college professor reduce my grade by a full letter for turning in a 48 page detailed report when all he wanted was 12.

John Scott · 10-23-2003, 09:59 AM

Why would he reduce your grade for that?

Bubo · 10-23-2003, 10:09 AM

He was one of those professors that wants a minimal workload. The report was an informative research paper with Nikola Tesla as the subject. I gave him 48 pages of detailed information (no duplication or redundant content) with extensive citations. He had to read the whole thing (or at least he was suppose to) in order to give it a fair evaluation.

For those who don't know, Nikola Tesla is the reason we have the nice electronics we have today. He invented AC current (and had to fight most of his life against Thomas Edison because Edison wanted his invention of DC to be the preferred option), invented the radio (Marconi promptly stole and patented it), provided the lights for the first World Fair, managed to create a mini-earthquake in NYC by attaching an oscilating engine to a beam on one building, said that he had plans for a "death ray" that would allow him to write his name on Mars (and most people believe that he certainly had the capability of inventing this) and many many many many other things. He once went to Rockefeller with a plan that would power the entire globe, allowing anyone to sink a single metal rod into the earth and draw as much electricity as they want, anywhere. Rockefeller asked him how he was suppose to make money from this invention, and Tesla was so upset that he promptly destroyed the plans for it (Tesla had several mental imbalances). He is also one of the few (if not the only one) people to ever have the Supreme Court post-humously award ownership of a patent to him (Marconi was found to have stolen the idea for radio, and the patent was transferred to Tesla's name).

Tesla as a man is no less interesting, with numerous mental disorders and phobias. His inventions came in "visions", he couldn't stand the touch of human contact, had a very precise and anal-retentive methodology of preparing to eat a meal, and many many many more idiosynchrosies. There are also multiple eye-witnesses (including Samuel Clemens a.k.a. Mark Twain) that witnessed him on serveral occassions pulling "balls of lightning" out of his pockets with his bare hands and performing tricks with them.

Now, to give you an even bigger idea of why Tesla was so amazing, he did all of this during his life span of 1856-1943.

Marcel · 10-24-2003, 02:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AcRoNym

www.boo.com

$100M+ worth of bankruptcy.

John Scott · 10-24-2003, 09:22 AM

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20000528_boo.html

Bubo · 10-24-2003, 09:43 AM

Good link John. I found this link to be more educational about why it failed, and some problems that should be considered:

http://www.tnl.net/newsletter/2000/boobust/

rtroxel · 10-30-2003, 02:19 PM

Quote:

He invented AC current (and had to fight most of his life against Thomas Edison because Edison wanted his invention of DC to be the preferred option

Coincidentally,I was reading about Tesla and Westinghouse the other day, and their rivalry with Edison.

No, Edison didn't want AC to become popular and he devised a brilliant public relations trick to ensure that it wouldn't: He built the first electric chair and powered it with AC. Edison felt that people would remember AC as something that is used only for executions.

The plan ultimately didn't work, of course, but the first electrocution was powered by some of Westinghouse's own AC current

This is detailed in "Empires of Light"by Jill Jonnes.

Fruit & Veg · 11-03-2003, 01:24 PM

One of the main problems with Boo.com was trying to keep up the cool, internet business image. One major expense they had was the telephone helpdesk being in Carnaby Street, Central London!!!!!! No-one see's the telephone helpdesk so why pay all that money on rent, when you might as well be in Scarborough or in Delhi?

Fool's like that deserve to be bankrupt.

altyfc · 11-03-2003, 03:21 PM

boo.com is the one that seems to get mentioned in the UK a lot.

Simple, really... they were selling expensive, trendy clothes. It's not all that suited to the 'net - if you're selling pricey clothes, people like to try them on to check the fit.

Aaron

Marcel · 11-03-2003, 05:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by altyfc

boo.com is the one that seems to get mentioned in the UK a lot.

And not only in the UK.