IAC is venturing into the How To space with the launch of Life333.com.
I try to be nice to big media companies but I can’t lie through my teeth, either. This smacks of lack of planning and thinking here folks.
The How To space is very, very crowded. Just look at some of the companies vying in this space:
This does not even include About.com, which is getting more and more into video (mind you, we have more videos than them… but who’s counting), but that’s the thing: IAC’s Life333.com is actually blending video with text… which is even more backwards because the text-based How To train has long left the station.
Second, the Life333.com domain name seems too close to comfort to Life33.com, which seems to be an Asian adult site (did anyone bother to type that in?)
Frankly, I think IAC looks bad here. The only thing I can think of is that this leak that they’re launching AsianPornSite.com - I mean Life333.com - is a negotiating play against one of the startups in the field… maybe IAC tried to buy one of them but the asking price was too high… so they countered with “really, we won’t buy, we’ll build”… an Asian Porn Site! Ok, scratch that last part.
But then again, not even taking the time to realize one missing number takes you to an Asian porn site makes me think that Mr. Diller should stick to buying and should leave the building to… well, gee, I guess few media companies are all that good at building startups… unless, of course, you’re into the Asian-porn kind of startup variety… and let’s face it: who isn’t?
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