Inspired by yesterday's blog I decided to take a rather longer stroll down memory lane, and dug out an article I wrote back in April 2000, profiling the swathe of print-related dotcoms and auction sites that were hoping to be the next big thing.

It is pasted below.

Suffice to say, the vast majority no longer exist, or have been swallowed up by other organisations.

What's interesting is that the big success story is Noosh, which has evolved into a cloud-based marketing services production management offering with more than 20,000 users at 5,000 companies. Just yesterday the company announced that it had handled some $700m of marketing projects in the first half of 2012, up 45% year-on-year.

So that trip into print's past turned out to be rather topical after all.

Those names from the archive, for your delectation and delight:

Name: 58k.com
Established: launched in America in October 1999
Who’s behind it - any famous names? Former printer Bob Rose had the original idea. The European wing is headed by Martin Tamlyn, whose print career has included stints at Wace and York Direct. Piedmont Ventures has backed the venture. Target market: all printers, all buyers
How it works: Auction site where buyers place jobs and printers submit bid for the work
Who pays? The winning printer pays a 2% commission fee, plus commission on any further jobs won from the same client in the future
Number of users: 3,500 so far in the States (50:50 split between printers and buyers)
Over here or over there? has just gone live in the UK  

Name: Collabria.com
Established: 1997, with first live customer in November of that year
Who’s behind it – any famous names? Brothers Alan (computers) and Robert (printing) Hu set it up.
Target market: any entity producing or buying printed material
How it works: Collabria operates a secure intranet site for each printer, and cuts out the paperwork and speeds the production of reprints and jobs - such as letterhead, business cards, and brochures - that fit a template"
Who pays: printers and print brokers are charged a “nominal” transaction fee on a pay-as-you-use basis
Over here or over there? Operational throughout the USA and Holland. Plans for UK unknown.
Number of users: 70-plus printers and 190-buyers. Claims to be currently processing 11,000-plus transactions per month

Name: ctrlp.com
Established: Formed in September 1999, launched November and went live in January this year
Who’s behind it – any famous names? Brainwave of Color Company founder Warren Tayler, who is executive chairman. Former Kodak and Danka boss Jim Kachenmeister is chief executive. Other familiar faces include Tony Hodgson, formerly Kall Kwik’s technical guru. Ex-Canon manager Steve Lovatt and the Color Company’s Daniel Emerson. Oh, and Tory high-flyer and former Asda boss Archie Norman just joined as a non-exec.
Target market: initially SME/SoHo users. After AIM flotation will target corporate marketplace
How it works: Print buyer buys the job through ctrlp.com, which is the principal and takes full responsibility for the job and customer satisfaction. Print suppliers go through a qualification process involving the production of test files. Ctrlp.com’s software picks the right supplier based on cost, quality and location
Who pays? The price quoted includes ctrlp’s margin. Buyers pay ctrlp, and ctrlp pays the printer so there is no credit risk for print suppliers. “We make our margin out of wringing out inefficiencies in capacity utilisation in the industry”
Number of users: 1,400-plus registered buyers. 200-plus printers in the process of being vetted
Over here or over there: live in the UK, and already has some printers signed up across Europe. Looking for jv partners for Europe and at potential alliance partners in America. “It’s almost impossible for us to stay in the UK”  

Name: imageX.com
Established: Founded in 1995, and corporate service went live in that year too
Who’s behind it – any famous names? Founded by two former advertising agency bosses. Went public last August and came in third place in a Forbes magazine survey of the best-managed, fastest-growing technology companies in the world Target market: ultimate vision is to have services that touch “the entire supply chain”
How it works: has different print centres for different audiences. Corporates can store all logos, fonts, design guidelines to form an online catalogue of printed items. ImageX.com nominates the printer to produce any given job depending upon mechanical requirements, location, timing etc. Small businesses can buy templated “quickprint” materials, eg Post-it notes, online. ImageX.com also owns the Printbid auction site “a matchmaking service between buyers and printer”
Who pays? “No accurate average available.” Printbid is currently free to buyers and sellers to encourage use of the service
Over here or over there: Live in the States, and looking to expand to global localities in the near future
Number of users: Undisclosed, althought claims the service reaches 1.1m desktop users within corporates.    

Name: Impresse.com
Established: launched in America last August
Who’s behind it – any famous names? Currently on its third round of financing, where it raised $62m from venture capitalists including Adobe Ventures
Target market: Corporate print buyers How it works: Print buyers sign up for the service in conjunction with their preferred commercial print partners. Claims to be the only online service that automates the entire print process from creation to delivery and invoice reconciliation
Who pays: N/A
Over here or over there? Will launch European operation at Drupa
Number of users: N/A  

Name: mondus.co.uk
Established: website has been live for just over a year
Who’s behind it – any famous names? Brainchild of Oxford graduates Rouzbeh Pirouz and Alexander Straub. They won £1.7m backing from 3i through an innovation in business competition in the Sunday Times
Target market: site is targeted at business-to-business services between small- to medium-sized enterprises. Print services is one of 12 headline service areas currently offered.
How it works: Buyers submit a purchase request form online, and details are sent to suppliers registered in that category. They then quote on it if the job is of interest
Who pays? There are no registration costs involved for buyers or suppliers. Upon completion of a deal using mondus, a transaction fee is payable by the supplier. The printing services category transaction fee is 5% of total cost net of vat and delivery
Over here or over there? launched in the UK first, and is now available in Germany, France and America as part of a rapid global expansion
Number of users: more than 70,000 users across all categories “print services is one of the most popular”  

Name: noosh.com
Established: August 1998 and went live in October 1999
Who’s behind it – any famous names? Founded by electronics whizz Ofer Ben-Shachar. Has raised $64m from backers, and is planning an IPO. Edward E Barr, chairman of Sun Chemical Group and Kodak Polychrome Graphics has just joined the board
How it works: it’s not an auction or brokering site. Buyers use their account to manage all their printing requirements, and can establish multiple job teams of print providers
Target market: all buyers and sellers of commercial print, but there are more benefits for regular print purchasers
Who pays? Buyers pay a monthly fee which depends on the amount of print purchased. It’s free for printers to join, and they are then charged 1-2% of the value of each job (the higher the job value, the lower the percentage) on a per-transaction basis
Over here or over there? Currently States only, a European launch is planned but the timescale is unknown
Number of users: 200-plus  

Name: printbynet.com
Established: launched August 99
Who’s behind it – any famous names? Original Communications firm PHD in Sheffield. Now a separate venture
Target market: Professional print buyers and marketeers
How it works: buyers complete an instant quote form online, and Printbynet allocates the job to one of its roster of registered printers. Printbynet handles all the client liaison and job management
Who pays? No registration fee, but Printbynet takes a negotiable percentage on each job
Number of users: “deals with thousands of quotes each week”
Over here or over there? UK based, but has been known to branch out into Europe  

Name: printcafe.com
Established: Launched 9 February
Who’s behind it – any famous names? CreoScitex, Nth Degree Software (Proteus), Logic Covalent, Prograph, AHP, PSI, Mdata… “we’ve got a great heritage”. Currently in the process of a Nasdaq flotation
Target market: “the printing business”
How it works: provides branded web servers for e-comms, fully-integrated with MIS systems from its parent group (and others). Buyers log onto the Printcafe website and put out jobs for firms to bid on. Large buyers can have their own Printcafe intranet for procuring via a group of printers
Who pays: Printers pay a flat fee for the entire integrated package. Entry-level cost is circa £6,000, although big discounts for early adopters are available
Over here or over there? Currently working with the CreoScitex salesforce and plans European launch for Drupa
Number of users: undisclosed due to quiet period prior to float    

Name: printchannel.com
Established: March 1998, went live in April 1998
Who’s behind it – any famous names? Investors include a “major” American venture capital company. Expects to go public in 6-12 months.
Target market: Print vendors targetting corporate users with 200-plus employees
How it works: Buyers supply artwork to the print vendor, who uploads it into Printchannel and sets up pages and products for ordering online. After acceptance testing, the corporate instructs the relevant internal staff in how to order through the system. Jobs are ordered and proofed online, and Printchannel generates an image-ready PDF file ready for output, allowing the printer to streamline admin and pre-press
Who pays? The printer pays a one-off licence fee of £5,000-£10,000, plus a per transaction fee of 5-8%
Over here or over there? Both. Dudley Print was the first UK user
Number of users: 40-plus print vendors and 250-plus corporates    

Name: print.quote.co.uk
Established: approx three years ago
Who’s behind it – any famous names? Set up by Manchester marketing agency Walsh Simmons
Target market: any print buyer
How it works: Currently a fairly basic shop window site where buyers post details of their print requirements and choose which printer to use based on a 30-word summary. Enquiries are sent out by e-mail or fax. Plans are afoot to revamp the whole site to become much sophisticated
Who pays? Printers pay £110 for a two-year listing
Number of users: Has 400 printers on its database
Over here or over there? UK-based    

Coming to an Internet browser near you soon: [as at April 2000] Printmountain.com Will be launched at Drupa. London-based and has recruited ex-LIBERfabrica chief Roy Hill as executive chairman. Will operate on a sealed bid basis. PrintConnect.net Based in Boston, plans for Europe unknown Quote4.com UK service which will go live next month and plans to sign up 50 printers by June Httprint.com Running since February in the US, will go live in Europe after Drupa. Httprint subsequently recruited former Polestar director Barry Hibbert and PPS web sales director Norman Revill.