Dot-Bombs

Brandweek, Nov 27, 2000

POP.COM, LOS ANGELES

Lifespan: Never launched; dream lasted from Oct. 1999 to Sept. 6, 2000

Investment: Received $50 million from Microsoft Corp. co-founder Paul Allen

Still standing: IFuse.com, TheThreshold.com, Entertaindom.com, DailyRadar.com

Lowlights: As entertainment dot-com deaths go, Pop.com's deserved a one-line obit. Instead, the demise of the 80-employee content site--which burned through a reported $18 million and closed 14 days prior to its official launch--read like a bad unfinished screenplay. The site was backed by Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg, David Geffen, Ron Howard and Brian Grazer, and funded by Paul Allen's largesse. If the collective talents of DreamWorks SKG, Imagine Entertainment and Vulcan Ventures couldn't create and sustain an online property, nobody could, seemed to be the consensus among most observers.

PSEUDO.COM, NEW YORK

Lifespan: Founded in 1994 as Jupiter Interactive; died Sept. 18, 2000

Investment: Received $18 million in 1999 and another $14 million this spring

Still standing: See Pop.com

Lowlights: Instead of trying to create marketable Net entertainment, this dysfunctional Webcaster seemed more interested in sex, drugs and E! Entertainment Television. With its 10 different channels chasing 10 separate genres, Pseudo couldn't establish its core audience. As so many entertainment dot-coms streaming rich-media content across broadband have discovered: If your undetermined audience can't receive it, they can't watch it.

INGREDIENTS.COM, NEW YORK

Lifespan: Nov. 1998 to Oct. 2000

Investment: Received $4.5 million in funding from Scripps Ventures and Primus Ventures Partners in July 1999

Still standing: EBeauty.com, ibeauty.com, Sephora.com

Lowlights: Staring too long at a computer screen can result in bags under the eyes--an absolute beauty faux pas. Thanks to a plethora of beauty sites, as well as the Web sites of tried-and-true brands like the Cliniques, Sephoras and Lancomes, yet another site that peddles these products seemed redundent. Under the leadership of former iVillagers Amy Ryberg and Katherine Legatos, Ingredients.com developed and manufactured personal care products for Web distribution. Apparently, however, the recipe was missing two key ingredients: originality and further funding.

FREEINTERNET.CDM, SEATTLE

Lifespan: Dec. 1998 to Oct. 6, 2000

Investment: Raised an initial $10 million in Aug. 1999 from Sequoia Capital. Later received an additional $25 million, almost half of which came from MP3.com. In March, the company attracted a hefty $53 million in private financing, including approximately $5 million from InfoSpace

Still standing: NetZero, Juno, Lycos, NetTaxi, Bluelight

Lowlights: Someone forgot to tell Freeinternet.com, also known as Freei Networks Inc., that nothing good in life comes for free. The ISP, which offered services such as Web access, e-mail, news, chat, long distance calling and Web site hosting, for nil--that's right, nothing--filed for an initial public offering on March 31. On Oct. 3, the company withdrew its IPO before going public. This announcement came on the heels of another announcement: The company was laying off 90 of its 300 employees, or a third of its staff. A few days later, Freeinternet.com went to the dot-com cemetery. Hopefully, its ghosts won't spook users and staff of NetZero.net, another free internet service provider that paid $5 million in cash for certain key assets of the deceased, including its domain names and all proprietary rights.