This reminded me of a report my research team at HKTDC produced back in November 1999: "Success Stories in Electronic Commerce", detailing 57 e-commerce sites. The report meant a lot to me, because the research was interesting (can't say that for some of our other outputs), the layout was fun (primarily done by the researchers themselves), and the report was colourful (not the usual 99%-text report).
I often wonder what have happened to these sites. Are there still around? I suspect so, because the majority of those we chose were click-and-mortar sites, so the Internet arm should still be around. But have their functions changed?
OK, this will be my next big project: revisiting them one by one, reporting on their growth (or demise).
The first one: Cybergold. It was listed under Advertising/Marketing in the report. We wrote: "Cybergold, an Internet marketing firm, brings in an innovative approach to advertising in cyberspace. The company pays consumers to read ads, participate in marketing surveys and register at Websites".
The first thing to report is that Cybergold is no longer here. It was acquired by MyPoints.com, which offers similar services, in August 2000. Cybergold ceased operation at the end of August 2000, just a few days after the closing down of Beenz. MyPoints itself was bought in June 2001 by UAL, the parent company of United Airline which went bankrupt shortly after 9/11.
According to Forbes, MyPoints is "a sort of frequent-flyer program for spenders ... It sends out e-mails to 5 million members on behalf of clients like Gap and Office Depot. Click on an ad and you get reward points worth 4 cents or so. About 13% of the 2 billion e-mails that MyPoints sends out annually get clicks". So it seems it is doing more or less the same things as it did in the last millenium. But of course the glamour has long gone. It's now just an online direct marketing company.
Also read: Hoover's fact sheet on MyPoints.com (By the way, Hoover's was another e-commerce site covered by our report).
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