10 amazing internet success stories

Some called it a fad, but the internet is here to stay. It has revolutionized the way we do everything and most can’t live without it. The first gold rush of the web has passed us by but there are still vast opportunities for people to achieve an amazing amount of success.

To give you an example of what can be achieved, here are ten amazing internet success stories.

1. YouTube

YouTube was started by Jawed Karim, Steve Chen, and Chad Hurley in February 2005. They found an opportunity when they realized uploading and sharing videos online was not easy. When the first video was uploaded a few months later in April 2005, YouTube was not an immediate success. They had to go back to the drawing board and came up with various ways to make the videos more viral. It worked. By summer 2006, videos were being watched hundreds of millions of times. Then in October 2006, Google acquired YouTube for $1.65 billion in stock.

2. Plentyoffish.com

Plentyoffish is one of the top dating sites on the internet and of those; it is one of the only free ones. It was launched in 2003 by Markus Frind as a project for him to learn how program with ASP.NET. Markus grew Plentyoffish from humble beginnings to a site that today makes around $10,000 a day or more. However, the greatest aspect of this success story is that Markus was the sole owner and employee just until recently.

3. Bebo

Bebo is a social network that was launched in January 2005 by Michael and Xochi Birch. The two attempted many times to achieve success online but “failed” until they created Bebo. Bebo has grow to 40 million members and has a strong presence in the United Kingdom. In March 2008, AOL agreed to acquire Bebo for $850 million, making Michael and Xochi two of the most successful entrepreneurs in the “new” wave of the internet.

4. Zenhabits.net

Zenhabits is one of the top personal development blogs on the internet. Leo Babauta launched it in January 2007 and with lots of hard work it has grown to over 50,000 subscribers in about a year. Today it reaches hundreds of thousands of other internet surfers each month. Leo has also been able to turn Zenhabits into a full time job and has recently announced he is writing a book.

5. BlueLithium

BlueLithium is an advertising network that was launched in 2004 and lead by serial entrepreneur Gurbaksh Chahal. It grew into one of the largest networks by offering different solutions to internet advertising. Gurbaksh is 25 years old and has had previous success with another ad network called ClickAgents which he sold for $40 million at age 18. BlueLithium was acquired by Yahoo for $300 million in October 2007. Gurbaksh is continuing to develop new projects including a book.

6. JohnChow.com

JohnChow.com is a blog covering the miscellaneous ramblings of a dotcom mogul. John Chow launched the blog in 2005 as a way to express his opinions on really anything. It wasn’t until later that he began to experiment with monetizing the site. As John learned about blogging and monetizing he shared the information with his readers. Unlike most bloggers, he also posted how much his site was earning each month. These updates became more popular and popular as his blog’s revenue grew and grew. Some months he earns as much as $30,000.

7. Last.fm

Last.fm was launched in 2002 as an internet radio station and music community. It was started in the United Kingdom but now reaches over 200 countries and has over 20 million active users. Last.fm offers surfers an interesting way to listen to their favorite music acts and a new way to find new groups and musicians. It also created a new avenue for music artists to sell their songs. Last.fm was acquired in May 2007 by CBS Interactive for $280 million.

8. Flickr

Flickr is the top photo sharing site that was launched in February 2004 by Ludicorp as a side project. Today it hosts over 2 billion pictures and is now moving into hosting videos. In March 2005 Flickr and its parent company were acquired by Yahoo for a rumored $40 million. Today it is still one of Yahoo’s top properties.

9. Weblogs, Inc.

Weblogs, Inc. may not be a familiar name but many of their blogs are. Weblogs, Inc. was launched in September 2003 by Jason Calacanis and Brian Alvey. It encompassed over 90 blogs covering a multitude of topics. Blogs were young when this network was established. It quickly grew and in October 2005 it was acquired by AOL for $25 million dollars.

10. Zappos.com

Despite lots of competition, Zappos.com was launched in 1999 by Nick Swinmurn as a place to buy shoes online. Nick was walking through the mall but couldn’t find a place that had the right shoe for him. So Nick decided to create Zappos. Nick got the help of another dotcom entrepreneur, Tony Hsieh who invested in the company. Since then Zappos has moved into other merchandise and has grown its revenues from “almost nothing” in 1999 to over $800 million in 2007. This year it is projected to generate sales of over $1 billion.

If you ever wanted to start an internet venture, NOW is the best time. With open source and less expensive technologies, it has become easier to launch a business on a shoestring budget but reach millions of people within just a few months.

Here are some lessons to be learned from these internet properties:

Find what you and other people need.
Create something simple.
Start small, but aim big.
Know when to return to the drawing board for plan b.
Be different.
Don’t let competition stop you, let it motivate you.
Also don’t forget to have fun with your project. You’re not going to be successful if your web venture is boring.

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This article was published on Friday, June 20th, 2008 at 6:36 am and is filed under Internet, Success. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

6 Responses to “10 amazing internet success stories”

1. Aussie Personals » Blog Archive » 10 amazing internet success stories says:
   June 20th, 2008 at 7:03 am

   [...] Bonnie wrote an intriguing post today onHere’s a little tasterThe two attempted many times to achieve success online but “failed” until they created Bebo. Bebo has grow to 40 million members and has a strong presence in the United Kingdom. In March 2008, AOL agreed to acquire Bebo for $850 million … [...]

2. varun khanna says:
   June 20th, 2008 at 1:16 pm

   the article is missing inspirations like google,facebook,amazon etc

3. Andrew says:
   June 20th, 2008 at 1:22 pm

   Well I was trying to stay away from stories like that because most people have already heard of them. I tried to go with the “little guys” with big successes.

   -Andrew

4. Sj says:
   June 20th, 2008 at 2:35 pm

   Good list Andrew.Hope to see lyved on there some day.

5. Andrew says:
   June 20th, 2008 at 2:59 pm

   Thanks

   -Andrew

6. 4 Fun » Blog Archive » 10 amazing internet success stories says:
   June 20th, 2008 at 11:09 pm

   [...] 10 amazing internet success stories 4. Zenhabits.net … Also don’t forget to have fun with your project. You’re not going to be successful if your web venture is boring. [...]

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