Tech graveyard full of indispensable products.
WASHINGTON, DC: The graveyard of the tech industry is full of indispensable products and services, which everyone thought would not fail, but did in the end. Here are five online pioneers that were crowned as the Next Big Thing until they were overtaken and badly burned by competitors.
Myspace
Launched in July 2003, Myspace was once the biggest player in the social media industry. At the peak of its popularity, it was the most visited social networking site in the world and, in 2006, it overtook Google as the most visited site in the United States. In 2007, Myspace was valued at approximately $12 billion. However, in 2008, Facebook surpassed it in Alexa rankings, and it all went downhill from there. At the moment, it is ranked 1,345 on Alexa. In comparison, Facebook is ranked #2, behind Google. Today, Myspace reportedly has 1 million users.
Orkut
Named after Google employee Orkut Büyükkökten, Orkut was once a popular social media networking site, but was recently shut down by Google. Six years ago, Google moved the Orkut operations to Brazil where it had a large following. India was another country where it was enormously popular. But the popularity in the two of the largest emerging markets could not save the sinking ship. Orkut simply could not keep up with the changing social media landscape.
Hotmail
Unlike some of the other sites mentioned on this list, Hotmail—or to be precise, its rebranded version, Outlook, is still breathing. However, it is nowhere as prominent as it used to be prior to the arrival of rivals such as Yahoo! Mail and Gmail.
Founded in 1996 as HoTMaiL, by Indian American Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smith, it was the front-runner in the free web-based email race. A year later, Microsoft would acquire Hotmail, creating huge buzz. But with the subsequent launch of Yahoo! Mail and Gmail, it lost the market leader position.
Netscape Navigator
First launched in 1994, Netscape Navigator had as much as 90 percent of the market share in the 1990s. However, with Microsoft entering the market with its Internet Explorer, resulting in a browser war, the fortunes of Netscape Navigator changed soon. A decade after its release, its market share would decline to less than 1 percent. Netscape Communication, the parent company, is now part of AOL.
Friendster
Once a popular social networking site, Friendster was considered the “grandfather” of social media networks. It was launched in 2002, a year before the arrival of Myspace and two years before the launch of Facebook and Orkut. Despite its early promise, Friendster never matched the popularity of Facebook, or Twitter. In 2011, it was re-launched as a gaming website. Today, more than 90 percent of the traffic comes from Asia, most notably Indonesia, Philippines and Singapore