Isn’t it interesting that Hammer had started his own website that acts as an online encyclopedia for dancing. DanceJam.com. Did you also know that Will Farrell is a co-founder of www.funnyordie.com. It seems that with the advent of rappers to actors and actors to rappers, being into some type of technology is the next best thing. Being that I sit in the middle of the silly-con valley and am up on all that technology type stuff. I thought maybe it would be interesting to bust out a few more celebrities that have tried the website startup thing. From 50 cent to Ashton Kutcher lets see who really knows wassup…
Who: 50cent
Where: ThisIs50.com
What: ThisIs50.com is a cross between an online resume and a place for fans to gather. What makes it an interesting business venture is that it’s been created using the build-your-own social network service Ning. Fiddy has leveraged all sorts of brand integration like a Kyte.tv video player and links to various places to buy and stream his music, including imeem.
Status: Alive and kicking, although it’s a visual nightmare. There’s also a 50cent.com, which is far cleaner and powered by MTV-owned Flux.
Who: Ashton Kutcher
Where: Blahgirls.com
What: Ashton, who is also the founder of VoIP start-up Ooma, launched Blahgirls at the TechCrunch50 conference in San Francisco. While mainly playing an animated video series, it’s also a celebrity gossip blog that plans to make money through advertising and branding that shows up inside the videos.
Status: It’s too early to tell but celebrity blogs can rise to prominence and then fall down like Stacey Dash in a Kanye video. Much of Blahgirls’ longevity will come down to the content, which in the case of the SouthPark-esq animated show makes it fairly watchable, even to newcomers.
Who: Baron Davis and Cash Warren
Where: IBeatYou.com
What: Davis, the pro basketball player, and Warren, a Hollywood producer, are co-founders of IBeatYou, which is a competition site. Users can create challenges and have others compete in order to earn points. Much like Worth1000, it’s become a repository for quirky user creations like photo contests and one-upmanship.
Status: Alive, although it’s too early to tell where it will end up. The site launched in late March and has since picked up just under $1 million in seed funding.
Who: Damon Wayans
Where: WayOutTV.com
What: WayOutTV was a video comedy site that was to be curated by Wayans. Originally slated to be its own site, it became a channel on YouTube shortly after launching.
Status: WayOutTV is effectively dead (for now that is). There’s still the WayOutTV channel on YouTube. However, there are no longer any videos.
Who: Will Smith
Where: PluggedIn.com
What: Back in mid-April Smith was one of the investors in a $2 million round of funding for music video site PluggedIn. The site serves up its videos in spiffy looking high resolution with the use of a special plug-in (which incidentally has nothing to do with the site’s name).
Status: Alive and still very much around. Like Peter Gabriel’s investment in The Filter, this isn’t Smith’s idea as much as he’s just helping to fund it.
Who: The RZA
Where: WuChess.com
What: WuChess is an extension of the WU brand and mixes social networking with online chess. Users can play against the computer or other people for prizes and stat points that are tracked on their profiles and determine their ranking for matchmaking and tournaments.
Status: Still alive, but again we have another case of a celebrity-backed venture that uses existing technology. In this case, it’s two-year-old Chesspark.
Who: Kanye West
Where: KanyeTravel.com
What: Kanye Travel is like any other travel site. You can buy plane tickets, book a rental car, and pick out hotel rooms in the same place, with one bill to pay. Where the hip-hop artist is doing things a bit differently is using the same space to sell tickets to his shows and getting attractions on-board to give out special rates to KanyeTravel.com users.
Status: Alive and kicking but slow. The site has also not yet taken on the challenge of mixing in the ticket sales and discounts.
DROPPED BY Merlin
Tags: 50 Cent, ashton kutcher, baron davis, damon wayans, Kanye West, MC HAMMER, tech news, TECHNOLOGY, the rza, will ferrell, Will Smith
September 25th, 2008 at 1:26 pm
this is a tight post. I had no idea these cats had their hand in the net game like that.