Viaweb

Viaweb
Screenshot
Company typeSubsidiary
Website type
E-commerce
Area servedUnited States
Founders
ParentYahoo!
CommercialYes
Launched1995; 31 years ago (1995)
Current statusInactive

Viaweb was a web-based application that allowed users to build and host their own online stores with little technical expertise using a web browser. The company was started in July 1995 by Paul Graham, Robert Morris (using the pseudonym "John McArtyem"), and Trevor Blackwell. Graham claims Viaweb was the first application service provider. Viaweb was also unusual for being partially written in the Lisp programming language.

The software was originally called Webgen, but another company was using the same name, so the company renamed it to Viaweb, "because it worked via the Web".

In 1998, Yahoo! Inc. bought Viaweb for 455,000 shares of Yahoo! capital stock, valued at about $49 million, and renamed it Yahoo! Store.

Viaweb's example has been influential in Silicon Valley's entrepreneurial culture, largely due to Graham's widely read essays and his subsequent career as a successful venture capitalist.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "Company". viaweb.com. Archived from the original on January 31, 1998. Retrieved March 5, 2021.
  2. ↑ How a grad student trying to build the first botnet brought the Internet to its knees, by Timothy B. Lee, at the Washington Post; published November 1, 2013; retrieved November 1, 2018
  3. ↑ Livingston, Jessica (January 2007). Founders at Work: Stories of Startups' Early Days. Apress. pp. 207–208. ISBN 978-1-59059-714-9.
  4. ↑ Livingston, Jessica (January 2007). Founders at Work: Stories of Startups' Early Days. Apress. p. 206. ISBN 978-1-59059-714-9.
  5. ↑ Paul Graham (April 2001). "Beating the Averages". paulgraham.com. Retrieved February 19, 2016.
  6. ↑ Paul Graham (August 24, 1995). "Viaweb's First Business Plan". paulgraham.com. Retrieved February 16, 2011.
  7. ↑ Paul Graham (April 2005). "Why Smart People Have Bad Ideas". paulgraham.com. Retrieved February 16, 2011.
  8. ↑ Paul Graham (April 2001). "Beating the Averages". paulgraham.com. Retrieved February 16, 2011.
  9. ↑ Randy Weston (June 9, 1998). "Yahoo buys Viaweb for $49 million". CNET News. Archived from the original on November 23, 2013. Retrieved February 16, 2011.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  10. ↑ "Company news: Yahoo buying Viaweb, a web marketing software maker". New York Times. June 9, 1998. Retrieved February 16, 2011.
  11. ↑ Graham, Paul (May 2004). "How to Make Wealth". Retrieved August 29, 2018.
  12. ↑ Christopher Steiner (October 20, 2010). "The Disruptor In The Valley". Forbes. Retrieved February 16, 2011.