Tuesday, October 2, 2018

Goodbye, Geocities: Final Sunset As Japanese Site Closes

Geocities, the original Southern California internet startup--which was founded all the way back in 1994 in Los Angeles--will finally disappear completely from the Internet, as Yahoo said today that it will shut down its Japanese Geocities site. Geocities--which hasn't been available in the United States for nearly 10 years--apparently had been popular enough in Japan that the site had continue to run for long after its sunset in the United States. Geocities was founded by David Bohnett and John Rezner in 1994, and was acquired by Yahoo in the Internet boom year of 1999. Geocities had allowed anyone to create their own web page, and hosted those pages--replete with overlaid advertising--for free. Geocities was one of the first Internet IPOs out of Los Angeles, and sold to Yahoo for $4.5 billion in stock and options in 1999, establishing a foothold for Internet and technology startups along what is now commonly called "Silicon Beach". Many startup founders were in diapers--or not even born--when Geocities was first established as "Beverly Hills Internet" in 1994.