TheTimes APRIL 03 2001

Dot-com beggars plead for safety Net

FROM CHRIS AYRES IN NEW YORK

THEY were known as the digerati this time last year. Worth billions of dollars on paper, America’s Internet entrepreneurs were cashing in on the biggest boom in Wall Street history and having the time of their lives.

But in just 12 months they have gone from being billionaires to beggars. Today marks the launch of Back The Net, a campaign to encourage consumers to shop online and buy shares in struggling Internet companies.

The 30 or so high-tech companies behind the event argue that without more encouragement the Internet could disappear.

Back The Net has been timed to coincide with the anniversary of the day that the Nasdaq stock exchange, home to many dot-com companies, suffered the first in a series of crashes that ended a ten-year bull run for high-tech stocks. Since then, investors in Nasdaq companies have lost an estimated $4 trillion (£2.8 trillion), more than 300 online ventures have gone bust and about 60,000 employees have been sacked.

Michael Tchong, 49, the San Francisco businessman behind the campaign, has promoted the event with a circular e-mail saying: “If this trend continues, you might soon lose access to your favorite online store, greeting card site, news source, music site or financial chat group.”

Mr Tchong then urges supporters to make at least one purchase online, buy ten shares in an Internet company, send a Back The Net e-greeting card to a friend or colleague, or donate money to charity via the Internet.

The campaign has already been subjected to abuse. Philip Kaplan, who runs a website dedicated to news on failing dot-com companies, asked on his website: “Is this the last resort for companies with poor business models to beg people to buy stuff from them? The deli across the street from me has never begged me to buy anything from them, and they’ve been around for 15 years. They offer useful products and actually charge money for them.”

Another website has parodied the campaign. It is called Back The Net: Plan B. Help save our Porsches.

Mr Tchong, who runs a privately owned Internet newsletter company called Iconcast.com, admitted that concern over his own wealth may have “indirectly” prompted the campaign.

Copyright 2001

-- Anonymous, April 02, 2001