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'''WebChat Broadcasting System''', or '''WBS''' for short, was a [[virtual community]] that existed during the 1990s. Supported by online advertising, it was one of few services at the time to offer free integrated community services including chat rooms, message boards, and free personal web pages. Extremely popular during the mid to late 1990s in the era prior to the [[Dot-com bubble|Dot-com bust]], WBS was the largest and best-known social media website of its time.<ref name="French_(1999)_p66">{{Cite book | last=French | first=Deanie | title=Internet Based Learning: An Introduction and Framework for Higher Education | publisher=Stylus Publishing, LLC. | year=1999 | page=66 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sYNWtoec0O8C&lpg=PA66&pg=PA66&vq=%22WebChat+Broadcasting+System%22&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false | isbn=9781579220075}}</ref> In 1998, WBS was acquired by the search engine [[Infoseek]], which was in turn acquired by [[Disney-ABC Television Group|Disney/ABC]]. The original WebChat Broadcasting System closed on 15 September 1999 after its chat rooms were integrated into Disney's existing [[Go.com|Go Network]] chat rooms.<ref name="WBS_closure">{{Cite web | title=Untitled statement about WBS' closure | url=http://hup1.go.com/cgi-bin/wbs/message.cgi | website=GO Network | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19991130011633/http://hup1.go.com/cgi-bin/wbs/message.cgi | archive-date=30 November 1999 | url-status=dead}}</ref> A revival of WBS was launched in 2009 and is virtually identical to the original community.<ref name="classic-web.net">[http://classic-wbs.net WebChat Broadcasting System (Beta) - WBS.NET]. Retrieved on 2013-09-25.</ref>
==Features==
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===Founding===
WBS was founded as the Internet Roundtable Society in 1990 by Michael J. Fremont and Wendie Bernstein Lash in [[Menlo Park, California]].<ref>
===Growth===
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In February 1997, WBS reached a milestone of 1 million registered users, accruing 4,000 new registered users and 5.5 million page views every day. Registrations were not confirmed. At this point, it was featuring 200 individual affinity groups. Within a week of the launch of a new feature to allow members to create their own home pages, over 15,000 members had begun using it.<ref name="1_million_accounts">{{Cite press release | url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_1997_Feb_3/ai_19082095/ | title=WebChat Broadcasting System hits 1 million registered users | ___location=Menlo Park, California | publisher=[[Business Wire]], [[FindArticles]] | date=3 February 1997 | access-date=28 November 2018 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060619111447/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_1997_Feb_3/ai_19082095/ | archive-date=19 June 2006 | url-status=dead}}</ref>
In May 1997 WBS had 1.4 million registered users. The other large web chat company at this time was WebGenesis Inc.'s [[theGlobe.com|The Globe]]. Also internet service provider AOL had over 14,000 chat rooms available to their customers through their non-web interface.<ref name="business_week">{{Cite
In June 1997 WBS hit 1.5 million registered users and had 7 million daily page views with over 200 rooms.<ref name="business_journal">{{
WBS frequently hosted real-time multimedia programming events, which only increased as its popularity grew. Such events attracted celebrities such as [[Tom Clancy]], the celebrity cast of [[Star Trek]], bands [[Soundgarden]] and [[Metallica]], the former president of [[Public Broadcasting Service|PBS]], Lawrence Grossman from [[NBC|NBC News]], [[United States]] Senator [[Arlen Specter]], [[Intel]] CEO [[Andy Grove]] and feminist [[Gloria Steinem]].<ref name="1_million_accounts" /><ref>{{Cite press release | title=Internet Users Flock to WebChat Broadcasting System; Site Now the Largest Chatting Hub on the World Wide Web | ___location=Menlo Park, California | publisher=Business Wire, FindArticles | date=20 November 1995 | url=http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_1995_Nov_20/ai_17769738 |
===Rise of instant messaging===
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===Infoseek buyout and demise===
Infoseek bought out WBS for approximately $6.7 million, or about 350,000 shares of Infoseek stock in April 1998. At the time WBS had 2.7 million users.<ref name="la_times">{{Cite news
WBS daily page views were down to 5 million in April, 1998.<ref name="infoseek_losses">{{Cite
When Infoseek acquired WBS there had been several web portals that added chat as a service. [[Lycos]] had bought the [[Tripod.com|Tripod]] community in February 1998 and Yahoo had added a deal with [[GeoCities]] in January 1998. There was strong competition between the web portals to match each other's services.
In 1998, Infoseek was bought by the Go Network. On September 15, 1999, WBS was shut down and many of the more popular rooms were transferred to Go's Java-based chat system. All that was left for the members at that time was a simple message saying, "Go.Com has decided to close down WBS and move its most popular rooms to the chat rooms at Go.Com. Your home pages will still be viewable for an undetermined amount of time. Thank you for supporting WBS during its existence." By the Spring of 2000, all home pages had been deleted. Go.com abandoned chat entirely in 2001.
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==Executives==
President and CEO Bayard Winthrop was a frequent spokesperson for the company.<ref>{{Cite news | first1=Robert D | last1=Hof | first2=Seanna | last2=Browder | first3=Peter | last3=Elstrom | title=Internet Communities – Forget surfers. A new class of Netizen is settling right in | url=http://www.businessweek.com/1997/18/b35251.htm | work=[[BusinessWeek]] | date=5 May 1997 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19970617020651/http://www.businessweek.com/1997/18/b35251.htm | archive-date=17 June 1997 | url-status=dead}}</ref> After its buyout, he co-founded Freebord, a San Francisco-based sporting goods manufacturer, in January 2001.<ref>{{Cite web | title=BSV 09 Judging Panel | url=https://www.freebord.com/bsv-09-judging-panel/ | date=17 November 2009 | website=Freebord | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200523102605/https://www.freebord.com/bsv-09-judging-panel/ | archive-date=23 May 2020 | url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Winthrop's_LinkedIn">{{Cite web | title=Bayard Winthrop | url=https://www.linkedin.com/in/bayard-winthrop-bbbb04b | website=[[LinkedIn]] | archive-url=https://archive.vn/20200523102545/https://www.linkedin.com/in/bayard-winthrop-bbbb04b | archive-date=23 May 2020 | url-status=live}}</ref> From 2008 to 2011, Winthrop was the CEO of [[Chrome Industries]].<ref name="Winthrop's_LinkedIn" /> He left in March 2011 and proceeded to found [[American Giant]].<ref>{{Cite web | author=CNBC.com staff | title=Bayard Winthrop | url=https://www.cnbc.com/2015/03/10/bayard-winthrop.html | website=[[CNBC]] | date=10 March 2015 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200523104311/https://www.cnbc.com/2015/03/10/bayard-winthrop.html | archive-date=23 May 2020 | url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news | first=Jennifer | last=Wang | title=The Man Behind the Hoodie That Started the Made-In-the-USA Apparel Movement | url=https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/227003 | work=[[Entrepreneur (magazine)|Entrepreneur]] | date=26 June 2013 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150208130430/http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/227003 | archive-date=8 February 2015 | url-status=dead}}</ref>
==2009 revival==
In July 2009, a revival of WBS, nearly identical to the original community, was launched. Most of the original chat rooms and features have been retained or recreated. The most noticeable difference is the lack of personal homepages and the chat rooms are not moderated.<ref name="classic-web.net" />
==See also==
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