ESCTODAY.COM CELEBRATES 4TH BIRTHDAY

by Sietse Bakker 88 views

Today exactly four years ago, esctoday.com appeared on the web for the first time. After some time experimenting with a website called eurosong2001.net, Sietse Bakker registered the domain name esctoday.com, Eurovision Song Contest Today, on 7th October. Esctoday.com appeared on the web four days later on 11th October 2000.

The aim of esctoday.com was ánd is to provide fans, interested television viewers, participants and officials a reliable source for news about the Eurovision Song Contest and its national selections and a place to interact with others.

It's May 12th, 2000. A student from Amsterdam, The Netherlands, received an invitation from a friend: “It was the day of the Eurovision Song Contest 2000 in Stockholm, a friend invited me to watch the contest at her home. Because I had an internet connection at home, she asked me to print the list of participants to bring it with me that night. Surprisingly, I couldn't find it, except at the official site, which was quite slow at my computer”. That's how Chief Editor and founder of esctoday.com, Sietse Bakker, describes his first Eurovision-on-the-web experience.

“A few months later, during the summer holiday, I was searching for a way to spend my bored times. Some friends of me were making a website, and I asked the same friend as the one I watched the Eurovision Song Contest 2000 with, about which subject my website had to be about. She came up with the idea to make a site about the contest”.

The first weeks, the website appeared under the name eurosong2001.net. Not the best name, especially because the domain name would be useless after the 2001 contest. To point out the daily updates on the latest news about the Eurovision Song Contest, the name esctoday.com was chosen, which stands for Eurovision Song Contest Today and was inspired by the website Eurovisie Vandaag. The launch took place on October 11th, 2000. Visitors on the first day: 30. Number of editors: 1.

Today, more than 30 people are connected to esctoday.com as editor, moderator, technician or manager. Their efforts are the heart of esctoday.com and without them, this website would not exist. “I would like to thank everyone who contributed to esctoday.com over the past four years. More than 35,000,000 pageviews have been generated since that first day in October 2000!”

Within a few weeks, esctoday.com will launch a new website and some interesting new member features for the members!