Mister Wong
Mister Wong was one of the largest European free social-bookmarking web services.[2]
Type of site | Social bookmarking |
---|---|
URL | www |
Alexa rank | |
Commercial | Yes |
Registration | Yes |
Launched | March 2006 |
History
The website was a German startup, established in 2006. Kai Tietjen had been running an ad agency for nearly a decade, when, in March 2006, he entered the field of web entrepreneurship[3] with the idea to "take on Google". Investing mostly his own money, he created a website that allows customers to bookmark their favorite sites, and then uses those bookmarks as the basic data for its search engine : to find a popular site, a user can search all other users' bookmarks.[4]. The service ceased operation after being sold for €2500 in October 2016. [5]
The service was available in German, English, Russian, Chinese, Spanish and French.
Origin of name
The website extols its users to "Wong the Web!", a reference to the practice of Wonging, often employed by card counters in Blackjack.
Controversy
Mister Wong's original logo,[6] depicting a "cartoonish, nerdy East Asian man", brought on protests from many Asian-Americans.[7] The website's creator subsequently issued an apology and removed the logo.[8]
See also
Notes
- "Mister-wong.com Site Info". Alexa Internet. Retrieved 2014-04-01.
- Mister Wong company profile at CrunchBase
- "Kai Tietjen, CEO & Founder of Construktiv", 2006
- "Creating Buzz (Without Hate Mail)", Newsweek, October 27, 2007
- "Mister Wong: Ehemaliger Social-Bookmarking-Star für 2.500 Euro verramscht". OnlineHändler News.de. Retrieved 3 July 2018.
- flickr.com stored image
- "Mister Wong Isn't Laughing Anymore", Der Spiegel online in German
- A Message from the Founder, Kai Tietjen, July, 27 2007 Archived 2010-06-07 at the Wayback Machine