XOOM
Encyclopedia
Xoom was an early dot-com
that used to primarily provide free unlimited space web hosting, similar to GeoCities
.
. In March 1997, Xoom became a web hosting (offering 100MB) and an e-mail
hosting website. The company acquired several small service providers in 1997 and 1998, including Paralogic, creator of ParaChat which was the largest chat network on the web at the time, and PageCount, a page counter service. The main revenue sources for the company were direct marketing via email to members and banner advertising.
The company was funded by a former Lycos
executive who had previously started Creative Multimedia (Portland, OR), Aris Multimedia (Marina del Rey, CA) and Point Communications (New York, NY), and angel investors who invested a total of $10M in common stock. No venture capital was raised and the company went public in December, 1998 (ticker symbol: XMCM). Around that time, it was ranked as the 13th most popular site on the web by Media Metrix. In May 1999, a deal was announced to use Xoom.com as a vehicle for NBC's internet ventures, that combined Snap.com (owned by CNET and NBC), and various NBC internet assets plus $400M of NBC on-air promotion to form NBC Internet (NBCi)
. At that time, the combined entity was ranked as the 7th most popular site on the web by Media Metrix.
Xoom was both criticized and praised for its strict policies on violations of terms of service.
A short-lived experiment in franchising
and licensing the Xoom software platform and business model in 1998 led to an Italian website, www.xoom.it, which is still in operation and owned by Virgilio
.
The domain "xoom.com" is now held by the Xoom Corporation
, a money transfer
website.
Dot-com company
A dot-com company, or simply a dot-com , is a company that does most of its business on the Internet, usually through a website that uses the popular top-level domain, ".com" .While the term can refer to present-day companies, it is also used specifically to refer to companies with...
that used to primarily provide free unlimited space web hosting, similar to GeoCities
GeoCities
Yahoo! GeoCities is a web hosting service, currently available only in Japan.GeoCities was originally founded by David Bohnett and John Rezner in late 1994 as Beverly Hills Internet . In its original form, site users selected a "city" in which to place their web pages...
.
History
Xoom was founded by Chris Kitze in September 1996 as a download website offering free clipart and a productivity suite including a word-processing application, centering around a word processor based on WordstarWordStar
WordStar is a word processor application, published by MicroPro International, originally written for the CP/M operating system but later ported to DOS, that enjoyed a dominant market share during the early to mid-1980s. Although Seymour I...
. In March 1997, Xoom became a web hosting (offering 100MB) and an e-mail
E-mail
Electronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...
hosting website. The company acquired several small service providers in 1997 and 1998, including Paralogic, creator of ParaChat which was the largest chat network on the web at the time, and PageCount, a page counter service. The main revenue sources for the company were direct marketing via email to members and banner advertising.
The company was funded by a former Lycos
Lycos
Lycos, Inc. is a search engine and web portal established in 1994. Lycos also encompasses a network of email, webhosting, social networking, and entertainment websites.-Corporate history:...
executive who had previously started Creative Multimedia (Portland, OR), Aris Multimedia (Marina del Rey, CA) and Point Communications (New York, NY), and angel investors who invested a total of $10M in common stock. No venture capital was raised and the company went public in December, 1998 (ticker symbol: XMCM). Around that time, it was ranked as the 13th most popular site on the web by Media Metrix. In May 1999, a deal was announced to use Xoom.com as a vehicle for NBC's internet ventures, that combined Snap.com (owned by CNET and NBC), and various NBC internet assets plus $400M of NBC on-air promotion to form NBC Internet (NBCi)
NBCI
NBCI may refer to:*National Bureau of Criminal Investigation, the detective branch of the Irish Garda *North Branch Correctional Institution, a prison in Maryland, USA...
. At that time, the combined entity was ranked as the 7th most popular site on the web by Media Metrix.
Xoom was both criticized and praised for its strict policies on violations of terms of service.
A short-lived experiment in franchising
Franchising
Franchising is the practice of using another firm's successful business model. The word 'franchise' is of anglo-French derivation - from franc- meaning free, and is used both as a noun and as a verb....
and licensing the Xoom software platform and business model in 1998 led to an Italian website, www.xoom.it, which is still in operation and owned by Virgilio
Virgilio.it
Virgilio is an Italian web portal which began in 1996 as a search engine and manually edited web directory. Subsequently it offered access to more disparate materials, organised into channels, and services such as e-mail, instant Messaging and online chat; host also the Italian version of...
.
The domain "xoom.com" is now held by the Xoom Corporation
Xoom Corporation
Xoom Corporation is a San Francisco-based online money transfer company that provides consumer remittance services to the Philippines, India, Latin America, Europe, Australia, Canada, and South Africa...
, a money transfer
Wire transfer
Wire transfer or credit transfer is a method of electronic funds transfer from one person or institution to another. A wire transfer can be made from one bank account to another bank account or through a transfer of cash at a cash office...
website.
External links
- Xoom.com (Wayback Machine Archive)
- NBCi.com (Archive)
- Xoom.it - Virgilio (Italian version of Xoom)
- Motley Fool article on Xoom.com
- Xoom Money Transfer
- Wired article about NBCi