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How One Merchandiser Lost $1M Trying to Monetize the 'Hamster Dance' Site (www.cbc.ca)
The CBC is marking the 20th anniversary of the notorious Hampsterdance web site with a 10,000-word oral history by arts reporter Leah Collins, promising "the twisted true story of one of the world's first memes."
An anonymous reader writes: Deidre LaCarte, a Canadian martial arts instructor, created the site as part of a contest between her friend and her sister to see whose site could attract the most visitors by December 31st, 1998. Deidre won -- then remembers later waking up to news crews at her front door asking about that web site she'd created that had become a worldwide phenomenon. Slashdot's CmdrTaco linked to the site on February 9th, 1999, and hundreds of millions of pageviews later the CBC traces the site's evolution into Hampsterdance -- the Album, which included the less-remembered rock song "Hampster Party." (Recorded under a pseudonym by The Boomtang Boys, it was described by the Onion A.V. Club as "the definitive hamster party anthem of the new millennium," in their year-end retrospective "Least Essential Albums of 2000.")
The CBC also interviewed members from a competing U.K. band that created knock-off versions of the site's hamster-y song for their own hit record, Cognoscenti vs. Intelligentsia. The Canadian hamster band enjoyed some popularity on Disney radio -- one song even became Hannah Montana's ringtone, and Britney Spears reportedly expressed an interest in recording their soulful hamster ballad, "Life is Good." Hallmark also says they ultimately used hampsterdance songs in over 100 different products. But whatever happened to the web site itself?
Bill Porfido, president of a merchandising firm called Abatis International, eventually purchased the site, and described the resulting disaster as "How one man sunk a million trying to turn the world's most annoying website into the biggest thing in kiddie entertainment." Failed monetization attempts included a cartoon series about a world-travelling "Hampster" band -- the official Hampsterdance.com site is still selling a DVD titled How The Hampsters Saved Winter. "One million dollars. It's almost a million, what we lost," Porfido complains, saying the site is now maintained by his old business partner, Brian Hoffman -- and adding "I haven't spoken to Brian in about three years, but I know he's tired of it."
But Porfido later admits that "even though it was a money sponge, I enjoyed every minute of it.
"People are like, 'Hampsterdance? That's you? That's you?!' It kind of gave you a little taste of fame even though it was -- bogus. (Laughs)."
An anonymous reader writes: Deidre LaCarte, a Canadian martial arts instructor, created the site as part of a contest between her friend and her sister to see whose site could attract the most visitors by December 31st, 1998. Deidre won -- then remembers later waking up to news crews at her front door asking about that web site she'd created that had become a worldwide phenomenon. Slashdot's CmdrTaco linked to the site on February 9th, 1999, and hundreds of millions of pageviews later the CBC traces the site's evolution into Hampsterdance -- the Album, which included the less-remembered rock song "Hampster Party." (Recorded under a pseudonym by The Boomtang Boys, it was described by the Onion A.V. Club as "the definitive hamster party anthem of the new millennium," in their year-end retrospective "Least Essential Albums of 2000.")
The CBC also interviewed members from a competing U.K. band that created knock-off versions of the site's hamster-y song for their own hit record, Cognoscenti vs. Intelligentsia. The Canadian hamster band enjoyed some popularity on Disney radio -- one song even became Hannah Montana's ringtone, and Britney Spears reportedly expressed an interest in recording their soulful hamster ballad, "Life is Good." Hallmark also says they ultimately used hampsterdance songs in over 100 different products. But whatever happened to the web site itself?
Bill Porfido, president of a merchandising firm called Abatis International, eventually purchased the site, and described the resulting disaster as "How one man sunk a million trying to turn the world's most annoying website into the biggest thing in kiddie entertainment." Failed monetization attempts included a cartoon series about a world-travelling "Hampster" band -- the official Hampsterdance.com site is still selling a DVD titled How The Hampsters Saved Winter. "One million dollars. It's almost a million, what we lost," Porfido complains, saying the site is now maintained by his old business partner, Brian Hoffman -- and adding "I haven't spoken to Brian in about three years, but I know he's tired of it."
But Porfido later admits that "even though it was a money sponge, I enjoyed every minute of it.
"People are like, 'Hampsterdance? That's you? That's you?!' It kind of gave you a little taste of fame even though it was -- bogus. (Laughs)."
And what kind of person thinks a website called hamster dance is worth spending $1m on. Really come on here. They should be fired for no reason
Would have been xhamster.
And an IT clerk working in Palo Alto has lost 1M$ trying to monetize stupid videos, ebooks and haiku poems as well as spam posts in various forums.
Would he have studied and got a better salary, he would be 1M$ richer. Instead, he is 200,000$ poorer with all the silly stuff he buys.
My teenage daughter is running into this all the time. She'll mention some bit of Internet ephemera to another person, who stares at her blankly. Just because some character or phrase or GIF has taken over your own corner of the Internet doesn't mean outsiders have heard about it.
I've been around since before Eternal September, but I've never heard of Hamster Dance.
Those commercial "hampster" figures/images are poorly designed. They have nothing in common with plump silly original "hampsters". Seem like an attempt to make a figure look "sexy" or something. Very creepy. Whoever designed these should have asked actual children, may be.
When a site falls behind on updating the copyright date in the footer, it's a sign things are over. When it's been nearly FIVE YEARS since they've updated the copyright date, it's LONG, LONG over. Definitely time to pull the plug on that thing.
The "I can Haz Chesseburger" or whatever cat people are doing quite well.
You never know what stupid shit hits big and makes money in this crazy society we have. There are too many people who don't have anything better to do with their disposable income.
Now I have that mutherfucking song stuck in my head again.
I object to power without constructive purpose. --Spock
20th anniversary? ugh. I remember when that first came out, I showed it to everyone at work. There was no content, just that loud repeating song and these little figures twirling around on the entire page. It was like nothing we'd ever seen before. We were just wondering, "Is there a point to it?" "Are they tryin to send some kind of message?" Web pages were all just so literal back then, like nobody had realized you could just DO stuff to have fun, that there didn't HAVE to be a point to it. I think that's what made it so popular for its few day of fame.
I also recall all those spinning characters really hurting the web browser and machine, like 100% CPU usage to get them good enough to only just stutter a little bit. Some of the computers couldn't handle it at all. But back then it was somewhat unusual to see ANY animation on a web page, let alone the entire page. And it didn't matter how big your monitor was, you could full-screen the window and it STILL filled the page with twirling hamsters.
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
sad merchant
Is it still Eternal September, or can we say that facebook and mobile has taken them away?
Which is why you have JavaScript update the footer year.
Deeeee-dah-ditty-do dididitty-a-ditty-a-ditty-a-dee. Hahahahaha.
By whomever owns the site to generate revenue and rekindle interest in the website.
By submitting it as "NEWS" to slashdot!
Could be worse. With a bit of Y2K-bugged javascript it could say © 1997 - 118.
This space intentionally left blank
Do you not check you posts EditorDavid before you hit the button?
And then I disable Javascript and the site is public domain... :-)
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I heard this one guy paid $1M for Slashdot.org
THERE WILL ALWAYS BE CONSEQUENCES FOR YOUR LIES AND PROPAGANDA NAZI FAGGOT KEN DOLL
Filter error: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING. Filter error: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING.
It's a rodent made of wicker that you can put things inside?
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
There was a website? I thought it was just some crappy song.
Hampton the Hamster "The Hamsterdance Song" https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
When are people going to learn "monetize" does NOT mean "to make money from." It means to literally use as money.
I always wondered if Disney ever got involved in a lawsuit regarding the merchandise. The original Hamster Dance song is nothing more than a sped-up sound clip from the animated version of Robin Hood.