Comments on: 11 troubled Web companies: The next Kozmos?

Some popular Web companies may be vulnerable to the economic slowdown. Do they face an ill fate similar to that of the beloved delivery service of the last bubble?

[honeyboner]

Wait a sec there, Fox Interactive says that Myspace revenue is somewhere south of a billion dollars. All things considered, it's hard to call this one the 'walking dead' even if Rupert Murdoch cuts it loose. Myspace like everyone else will have to struggle to remain/become profitable again but that doesn`t mean that you can count them for dead.

[Arrgster]

I have a hard time believing myspace is walking dead. I use it everyday along with 3 of my roommates. I also have 200 active friends and just added three this week. I have no intention of switching to facebook and honestly don't like the facebook interface.

My top three sites go : igoogle, myspace, my bank. after that it's cnn and a few other news sites..

[rafe]

You guys are right. I have updated the MySpace item.

[stigmattaman]

Have to agree with them on the MySpace - Fox seems to have monetized it a lot better than Facebook, even if they're soon to be losing on traffic. Even if Facebook's ahead in users, MySpace still has a ton of users.

[brian.lee]

I agree with the skype comment it was a bad move by eBay... I hope eBay gives it a good home maybe google will buy it. I use it alot for international calls much easier than buying a calling card and your minutes don't expire.

[evanwolf]

Rafe, I don't see how Skype fits on this list. It's on track to sell $500 million in services this year and it's still in double digit growth. Bad times make Skype's low costs (one tenth of your landline service) look even more attractive. Bad times also increase the value of personal and business relationships, and Skype remains the largest video talk network.

[JohnBarbagallo]

You won't see Facebook in even remote trouble yet...they're still walking very tall...

[GeminiGuy525]

People shouldn't listen to his guy much.
He put Myspace on this list.
Rafe's just trying to get readers to respond and start talking about him.
MySpace isn?t going anywhere and is central to Rupert Murdoch?s internet plans for the future.
Rafe loses a lot of credibility and proved he?s just out to cause a reaction when he put Myspace on the list.
IMHO

[lacykemp]

I've never understood Second Life and it's always seemed super buggy. It was a cool idea and companies definitely got on board but I'd have to think they'd be seeking a larger audience and better return on investment in the "first life" as opposed to this weird virtual world that seems to be having a serious population scare.

[rmesler]

Second Life is still around?

And speaking of Kozmo... a "where are they now" article reported that one of its founders, Yong Kang, moved on to become an investment banker at Lehman Brothers. Yikes.

[RighteousSoutherner]

What's with the anti-Murdoch quip? I'm certain there are a few ruthless leaders at CBS or at least was there. Clue, I'd RATHER not say.

[michaelportent]

The only ones I'd miss out of this whole bunch are Meebo and Pandora.

[TechOG]

Nice article. I'd like to hear about the rest of the technology deadpool (software, consumer, hardware, networking, carriers). The web won't be the only ones to get hit hard by the new economic realities.

[JimMcDish]

MySpace ROCKS dude. They better not get rid of MySpace!

www.privacy-center.ru.tc

[Daniel_Tunkelang]

Like many, I'm not sure how popular Twitter would be if it started sending ads out as tweets. Perhaps they could go freemium, making the web-based interface ad-supported and charging for API-based access. Though it may be a bit late to put the cat back in the bag, since everyone has gotten used to free. Still, the party can't go on indefinitely.

[Torley]

@Rafe: Friendly greetings! The mention of Second Life is contradictory and inaccurate: Second Life interfaces with the web and has a website, but it's not restricted to being a "Web company", it's a virtual world.

"Expensive to run" should be clarified ? I previously debunked some fallacies @ http://torley.com/debunking-mindjunk-about-the-cost-of-second-lifes-visual-quality

I definitely agree about continuing to improve ease-of-use, but again, specific suggestions here ? and for most of the sites ? would've helped boost understanding, raise interest, and add contextual value.

"Empty-restaurant syndrome" might've been more true a couple years ago, but you're more aware of this because it's more social than surfing the web (and not usually knowing who else is watching the same page).

I find it hard to be alone in SL nowadays, and popular events like Burning Life have been packed with people. Infact, I heard many observations that it was too crowded, and many concerts, gameshows, and other events are like that. This is in part thanks to talented promoters (web parallel: SEO). Also see: http://www.flickr.com/groups/burninglife/

Disclosure: I work for Linden Lab and am posting this to help improve info. More about me @ http://torley.com :)

[Torley]

BTW, looks like em dashes are being turned into "?" so I'll remember to use "--" until it's fixed. Please check your character encoding. ;)

[renoir]

This is a good piece of <a href="http://netpaths.net/seo">digg bait</a>, but has no basis in reality.

Twitter is a massive site that is cheap to run and has an addicted fan base. They aren't going anywhere.

Zillow provides a valuable service and homeowners will be checking their home prices like they check the stock market to see which one rebounds first.

Myspace failing? Microsoft will fail before teens stop posting compromising pictures of themselves online.

I'm willing to put my money where my mouth is.

[mikedrupert]

Rafe,

While I do agree with your list I can't believe that you chose to put Myspace on the list over Facebook! How in God's name could you say that Mysapce might be gone and yet facebook, a company that's bleeding money and has no business model in sight and won't have one for 3 more years, is not!

Please explain that one because I'm now starting to doubt your credibility.

best,

Mike

[spark9991]

Rafe, i don't use any of these you mention, they are not "needed" services. Even before the credit crunch I didn't see a need for any of them. I tried MySpace and it was too cluttered. Twitter was a waste of time: "hey, I'm brushing my teeth now!" tweet tweet. Come on, these are all for high school kids with too much time on their hands (and marketing sellouts who believe they need to tweet to be "popular").

[spark9991]

Rafe, i don't use any of these you mention, they are not "needed" services. Even before the credit crunch I didn't see a need for any of them. I tried MySpace and it was too cluttered. Twitter was a waste of time: "hey, I'm brushing my teeth now!" tweet tweet. Come on, these are all for high school kids with too much time on their hands (and marketing sellouts who believe they need to tweet to be "popular").