Cooper. “Large, branded companies, although they have the name recognition, tend to have blind spots and aren’t able to move as quickly to address changes.”
The shakeout of black dotcoms isn’t just an issue of content versus commerce. It’s a question of market savvy-and common sense. In the age of Internet economics, the “if you build it, they will come” mentality no longer applies. “There’s likely to be further carnage in the space,” says Cooper. “Sites that have the ability to preserve their cash and grow their audience are the ones that will survive.”
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STATUS OF BLACK-FOCUSED WEBSITES |
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|
SITE |
LAUNCH DATE |
STATUS |
VISITS PER MONTH |
| africana.com | January 1999 | Acquired by Time Warner in September 2000; will be part of AOL site | 575,000 |
| afronet.com | 1995 | Black-owned | 436,000 |
| blackfamilies.com | January 1999 | Owned by Cox Media; closed August 2000 | NA |
| blackplanet.com | September 1999 | Produced by Community Connect, which also backs asianavenue.com | 439,954* |
| blackvoices.com | 1997 | Produced by Tribune Co. | 250,000 |
| blackwebportal.com | November 1999 | Black-owned | 138,810 |
| blackworldtoday.com | July 1996 | Black-owned | 300,000 |
| netnoir.com | June 1995 | LIGN=”TOP”>Black-owned; AOL holds 15% stake | 250,000** |
| ubo.net | July 2000 | Black-owned; Privately held | 500,000 |
| blackenterprise.com | January 1996 | Black-owned | 500,000 |
| bet.com | August 1999 | Black-owned; partnered with Microsoft, USA Networks, News Corp., and Liberty Digital | 800,000 |
| ebony.com | February 1997 | Black-owned | 72,487*** |
| essence.com | Late 1995 | Black-owned; | 77,656*** |
| In partnership with Time Inc. publications Except where noted, numbers were provided by the companies. * Media Metrix rating **Unique Visitors per month ***DoubleClick DART |
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