Pets.com

Pets.com is a former dot-com enterprise that went bankrupt in 2000. Its former Nasdaq stock symbol was IPET. Today it is considered a leading icon of the dot com bust of the early 2000's.

The business aimed to sell pet accessories and supplies over the World Wide Web, analogous to Webvan's attempt to sell groceries, and garden.com's try at selling garden supplies online. The company subscribed to the dot-com philosophy that making a brand name known was as or more important than profitability. Pets.com actually succeeded wildly in making its brand name known.

However, because Pets.com was never anywhere close to profitable, it was still forced to close its doors. That announcement was made on the afternoon of November 6, 2000. Pets.com stock had fallen from over $11 per share in Februrary 2000 to $0.19 the day of its bankruptcy announcement. At its peak, the company had 320 employees. Pets.com was 30% backed by successful dot-com company Amazon.com.

The Pets.com sock puppet

While Pets.com's success at selling pet supplies at their website pets.com was dubious at best, the company did have one massive marketing success: its advertising icon, the unnamed Pets.com dog.

The puppet, performed by Michael Ian Black, was a simple sock puppet with button eyes, flailing arms, a stick microphone emblazoned with 'pets.com', and a Timex watch around its neck. Millions of dollars were spent on commercials featuring this dog from its introduction in August, 1999 into 2000, with a notable appearance of the Pets.com dog during a commercial in Super Bowl XXXIV in January 2000.

As the puppet's notoriety grew through 1999 and 2000, it gained almost cult status and widespread popularity. The puppet made an appearance on ABC's Good Morning America, Nightline, Live with Regis and Kathie Lee, and even had a balloon made in its image for the 1999 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

In addition to the media appearances the Pets.com puppet made, merchandising was also done for the company including clothing, other trinkets, and a retail version of the sock puppet that delivered five of the puppet's famous lines (shown above).

As Pets.com's financial status began to become desperate, the company attempted a defamation lawsuit against the writer/comedian Robert Smigel—specifically, his character, Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog that frequently appeared on Late Night with Conan O'Brien beginning in 1998. During a few of Triumph's routines, Triumph claimed that the Pets.com puppet had "stolen his routine," among other things. The lawsuit was not enough to save the company. After the company folded, his rights were purchased by Hakan and Associates, and in 2002 the mascot began work for an USA automotive loan company called 1-800-BAR-NONE.

Post-Bankruptcy

After Pets.com bankruptcy, the future of the Pets.com puppet was uncertain. Ultimately, this asset of pets.com was bought by Bar None [1] (http://www.barnone.com/), a mortgage and refinancing firm which took advantage of the interest rates dropped by the Federal Reserve in the wake of the dot-com bust.

Pets.com later became the epitome of dot-com failures. Philip J. Kaplan, creator of Fucked Company who wrote a book of the same name, remarked:

You did not need to have a doctorate in economics to see that many of these dot-com companies wouldn't work. Take Pets.com, which sold pet supplies online. Imagine you just ran out of dog food and kitty litter. What do you do? Do you run to the nearest hardware store and pick some up? Or do you go online, order it, then wait four to six weeks while your dog starves and your cat shits all over the living room floor?

External links

• Archived versions of pets.com (http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.pets.com/) at the Internet Archive (to see the website, look for archives dated before January 1, 2001).
• http://pets.com (domain now owned by PETsMART)