SILICON VALLEY – Now that the Google IPO's a success, people go back to late-90s dotcom bubbling. On the hunt for a community, some even pay their users.

"It's all about eyeballs again," says webmaster Antonio of PetzPhotos.com. His new website is a place for people to upload their house pet photos for free.

"Everybody wants his cat or dog up there online to share with others. PetzPhotos is a do-everything portal reminiscent of what others tried before, and failed." Antonio's mission is "not to fail."

"We already assembled a large community of 2 million users, chatting, discussing, and uploading their little darlings. We promised to pay the first 10 million users $10, which naturally hit our budget hard. Also, our webspace costs are heavy and we can't find advertisers, but the concept is incredibly sticky."

Would users pay for this service, or sign-up if there wasn't monetary reward? A survey among PetzPhotos users show that only half a dozen would – among them friends and family of PetzPhotos employees.

"We found out our potentially profitable user base isn't big enough to pay for the coffee here," secretary Mary D. tells FakeToday. As of the time of this interview, she is still waiting for her first paycheck.
But Antonio reassures going public will solve the problem of revenue, and "the fact we make user surveys in the first place shows the web has grown up."

By FakeToday correspondent Philipp Lenssen (8/25/2004).