Rise and Fall of Online Empires

1991 2012 1992 1993 2011 THE RISE AND FALL OF ONLINE EMPIRES: Will Facebook survive? Just as many major online empires of the past have met their demise, so could the sites we use the most today. While this may seem like a pessimistic prediction, the truth is that the fall of online empires makes way for the new and the better. 2004 0007 1 007 2003 2002 1991 Founded as America Online 1993 Added USENET access to its features 1996 Monthly payments are 12 91 92 93 initiated 11 10 2001 Merged with Time Warner 2003 Launched AOL for Broadband Aol. 2005 Launched TMZ.com and Telepictures Productions 2006 Lowered prices 2006 Conducted massive layoffs 03 2008 Sold off significant amounts of hardware 2010 Signed agreement to acquire TechCrunch 2011 Bought the Huffington Post for $315M 1994 Founded by Jerry Yang and David Filo 1995 Raised $2M in venture capital 1996 Joined by Jeff Mallett 2000 Stock closed at $475 11 12 91 92 2001 Fired Jeff Mallett, the genius behind Yahoo's growth 2002 Tried to buy Google for $3B; offer was refused YAHOO! 2004 Launched its own web-crawling algorithm, similar to Google 2004 Stock dropped to an abysmal PO 00 $4.05 2007 CEO quit, Jerry Yang took over the position 2008 Yang refused to sell Yahoo to Microsoft for $47.5B, shareholders angered 1995 Founded 1996 Became sole search provider 12 91 92 for Yahoo 93 1998 Reached 13M queries per day 2000 Filed for IPO, which was cancelled due to bubble burst altavista 2003 Bought by Overture Service, Inc., which was then acquired by Yahoo 00 2010 Yahoo employee leaked slides 03 about AltaVista shutdown 2011 Finally shut down for good 2004 Launched, gains IM users 2005 Bought by NewsCorp's Fox Interactive Media 12 91 92 11 - 2007 Bought My Photobucket for $250M 2008 Overtaken by Facebook for total users myspace -2008 Launched music store with full-length audio streaming -2009 Key personnel left for other ventures 03 2011 Amount of visitors declined by a staggering 14.4% 2011 Announced layoffs of 50% of staff 2004 Founded by Kevin Rose 12 91 92 2005 Added friends list and 11 redesigned interface 2007 Redesigned interface again 2008 digg Visitor count grew to 236M 2008 Tried to sell to Google for $200M, Jost $4M in first 3 quarters 2010 Massive site overhaul caused DO user backlash, most leave for Reddit 2011 Still has some activity 12 91 92 11 10 2004 Founded 2006 Reached 20M active users facebook 2007 Launched Facebook ads 2010 Reached 40OM active users 2011 Reached over 750M active users 66 00 2012 Filed with SEC for IPO Typical Lifespan of an Online Empire 11 years Average number of years before a major online company hits bottom 8 years Number of years since Facebook's launch While Facebook may show no signs of slowing down at the moment, it should be noted that many popular online companies have shown a comparable meteoric rise before suffering an indignant fall. Will the Facebook empire meet a similar fate as those who have come before it? Sponsored by CenturyLinkQuote.com Sources: Washington Post • techcrunch • LA Times • cnet • focus.com 1999 1998 1997 1996 1994 2005 2006 2008 6007 2010