Lastminute is dotcom icon

And it's all our fault

By Tim Richardson • Get more from this author

Posted in Music and Media, 7th August 2000 11:44 GMT

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The media was responsible for turning lastminute.com into an "icon of the new economy", according to a report published today.

Of the 2814 articles written about the new economy in Britain between March and May 2000, 293 (ten per cent) mentioned Lastminute.com, claims Dot.comment.

Of these, 73 mentioned Lastminute.com's co-founder, Martha Lane Fox, although the report's authors claim part of the reason for the pre-occupation with Ms Lane Fox was the lack of other personalities in the British Net sector.

The report, commissioned by the Marbles PR agency, also claims to have settled the question of how to write the term "dotcom".

It concludes that the term with the dot, ie. dot.com (surely, though, that's dotdotcom?) is the one to use.

Another fatuous survey, this time from Dresdner Kleinwort Benson, claims that the better the Web site, the better the company.

It claims to have evidence that proves that FTSE companies with good sites outperform those that don't by some 35 per cent.

The report's authors claim that simply rating a Web site is an "easy way to gain a judgement as to how a company is organised and how its stock price is likely to perform".

Unbelievable. And people pay for this kind of sh... er... financial advice. ®