An overflowing mailbox and a few flummoxed guards are among the last remains of yet another local dotcom company to shut its doors.
A handwritten note on the door of what was once Music Zone's office in downtown Taipei points to the apparent haste with which its executives cleared out. "Apparently the photocopy guy wants his money," said one passerby indicating the note on the door.
In less than a fortnight the phones were switched off, the mail server shutdown and the office cleared out. No one quite knows what happened to the staff of less than a dozen.
Ironically, the lock out means that co-tenant IandI Asia Taiwan, an informal Internet industry body, is also locked out.
It's a tale that's becoming all too familiar in Asia. Having watched their Silicon Valley counterparts go from boom to bust in the blink of an eye, Asia's dotcommers have caught the same bug.
First in Hong Kong, where capital flows freely and Internet companies are poised to break into China. Now, not very far behind, is Taiwan.
Just this week local portal Yam.com announced it was cutting back staffing as part of a restructuring program. The official figure was 13, while one rumor put the number as high as 32.
Taiwan's Internet bubble was deflated, if not burst, some months ago when local firms realized that while usage is growing fast, revenues are not.
The acquisition of local hero Kimo.com by its US counterpart Yahoo was seen by the industry as the beginning of the end. Or rather, the end of the beginning. Consolidation and shutdowns were to become the next item on the dotcom menu.
But the lightning fast closure of Music Zone is a different kettle of fish. Just last month, CEO Bryan Biniak, a well-known face in the local Internet scene, waxed lyrical about the company's killer deal with mobile phone carrier Far EasTone and even spoke of a new deal with a leading mobile phone manufacturer.
Now, none of that has come to fruition.
That's no surprise to Far Eastone however. "They didn't provide details, but we kind of knew where they were heading," said Andrew Wong, who works in FET's WAP development division. "It's pretty much the same across all the dotcom companies these days."
A business-to-business company, Music Zone's mission was to facilitate the sale and exchange of music over both wireless and conventional Internet.
Its backers included such big names as Hong Kong venture capital company TechPacific and Web Connections.
The company first got going in around September 1999, with a 'soft launch' in June of this year. Numerous attempts to locate CEO Bryan Biniak and President Henry Hon went unanswered and Nancy Tsai, former administrative director, declined to comment.
Music Zone may well have been caught in the same trap as its fallen brethren, great idea but no follow through.
"If all you've got is an idea, then you are dead in the water," James Skidmore, Director of Asian Operations at non-profit consulting group Venuetba was once quoted as saying.
Food for though for Taiwan's next dotcom wannabe.
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