Dot-com company#Acquisitions

File:Nasdaq_Composite_dot-com_bubble.svg, the NASDAQ Composite index spiked in the late 1990s. It then fell sharply as the bubble burst.]]

{{Main articles|.com#History}}

The .com top-level domain (TLD) was one of the first seven created when the Internet was first implemented in 1985; the others were .mil, .gov, .edu, .net, .int, and .org.{{Cite web |title=ICANN {{!}} Archives {{!}} Top-Level Domains (gTLDs) |url=http://archive.icann.org/en/tlds/ |access-date=2022-03-05 |website=archive.icann.org}} The United States Department of Defense originally controlled the domain, but control was later transferred to the National Science Foundation as it was mainly used for non-defense-related purposes.{{Cite web |title=The History of the Domain Name Industry |url=https://snapshot.internetx.com/en/domain-name-industry-history-facts-figures/ |access-date=2023-11-22 |website=www.internetx.com |language=en}}

{{Main articles|E-commerce#History and timeline}}

With the creation of the World Wide Web in 1991, many companies began creating websites to sell their products. In 1994, the first secure online credit card transaction was made using the NetMarket platform.{{Cite web |last1=Magazine |first1=Smithsonian |last2=Fessenden |first2=Marissa |title=What Was the First Thing Sold on the Internet? |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/what-was-first-thing-sold-internet-180957414/ |access-date=2022-03-05 |website=Smithsonian Magazine |language=en}} By 1995, over 40 million people were using the Internet.{{Cite journal |last1=Roser |author1-link=Max Roser |first1=Max |last2=Ritchie |first2=Hannah |author2-link=Hannah Ritchie |last3=Ortiz-Ospina |first3=Esteban |date=2015-07-14 |title=Internet |url=https://ourworldindata.org/internet |journal=Our World in Data}} That same year, companies including Amazon.com and eBay were launched, paving the way for future e-commerce companies.{{Cite web |date=2018-09-06 |title=Development & History of E-commerce: Past, Present & Future |url=https://www.spiralytics.com/blog/past-present-future-ecommerce/ |access-date=2022-03-05 |website=Spiralytics Inc |language=en-US}} At the time of Amazon's IPO in 1997, they were recording a 900% increase in revenue over the previous year.{{Cite journal |last=Olliges |first=Ralph |date=2020 |title=A Brief History of the Internet. |journal=Journal of Philosophy of Education |volume=70 |pages=xiii-xxix }} By 1998, with a valuation of over $14 billion, they were still not making a profit.{{Cite web |title=Amazon soars on $400 target - Dec. 16, 1998 |url=https://money.cnn.com/1998/12/16/technology/amazon/ |access-date=2022-03-05 |website=money.cnn.com}} The same phenomenon occurred with many other internet companies{{Em dash}}venture capitalists were eager to invest, even when the companies in question were not profitable. In late 1999, the Nasdaq index reached a price-to-earnings ratio of over 200, more than double that of the Japanese asset price bubble at the beginning of the 1990s.{{Cite journal |last1=Teeter |first1=Preston |last2=Sandberg |first2=Jörgen |date=February 2017 |title=Cracking the enigma of asset bubbles with narratives |journal=SAGE Publishing |volume=15 |pages=91–99 }}

{{main|Dot-com bubble}}

A common indicator used to show the dramatic rise in the number of dot-com companies is the number of advertisements purchased at the Super Bowl. In 1999, only two internet companies bought advertisements, but that number reached 17 the following year.Shroeder, Charlie. [http://weekendamerica.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/01/31/superbowlad/ "The Dot-Com Super Bowl"], Weekend America, 2 February 2008. Accessed February 26 2014. Archived from [https://web.archive.org/web/20160203174011/http://weekendamerica.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/01/31/superbowlad/ the original] on 3 February 2016. However, this number sharply decreased in 2001, with only 3 dot-com companies purchasing an advertising slot.{{Cite news |last=Elliott |first=Stuart |date=2001-01-08 |title=THE MEDIA BUSINESS: ADVERTISING; In Super Commercial Bowl XXXV, the not-coms are beating the dot-coms. |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/08/business/media-business-advertising-super-commercial-bowl-xxxv-not-coms-are-beating-dot.html |access-date=2022-03-05 |issn=0362-4331}}

While the term can refer to present-day companies, it is also used about companies with this business model that came into being during the late 1990s with the rapid growth of the World Wide Web.{{Cite web|url=https://www.inc.com/encyclopedia/dot-coms.html|title=Dot-Coms|last=Inc.com|date=2018|website=Inc.com|access-date=10 October 2018}} Many such startups were formed to take advantage of the surplus of venture capital funding and were launched with thin business plans, sometimes with just an idea and a catchy name. The stated goal was often to "get big fast", i.e. to capture a majority share of whatever market was being entered. The exit strategy usually included an IPO and a large payoff for the founders. Others were existing companies that re-styled themselves as Internet companies, many of them legally changing their names to incorporate a .com suffix.

The stock market crash around 2000 that ended the dot-com bubble resulted in many failed and failing dot-com companies, which were referred to punningly as dot-bombs,{{cite news | url=https://www.usatoday.com/money/dotcoms/dot039.htm | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010626133440/http://www.usatoday.com/money/dotcoms/dot039.htm | archive-date=June 26, 2001 | work=USA Today | date=December 28, 2000 | url-status=dead | access-date=May 1, 2010 |title=What detonated dot-bombs? }} dot-cons{{cite web|last=Skillings|first=Jonathan|title=Explaining the "dot-cons"|url=http://www.zdnet.com.au/explaining-the-dot-cons-120263916.htm|publisher=ZDNet|access-date=2011-06-12|archive-date=2011-08-07|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110807043230/http://www.zdnet.com.au/explaining-the-dot-cons-120263916.htm|url-status=dead}} or dot-gones.{{cite news |last=Fisher |first=David |date=2001-12-13 |title=From dotcoms to dotgones... |url=https://www.standard.co.uk/news/from-dotcoms-to-dotgones-6298916.html |newspaper=Evening Standard |access-date=2013-07-19}} Many of the surviving firms dropped the .com suffix from their names.{{cite news |last=Glasner |first=Joanne |url=https://www.wired.com/news/business/1,46403-0.html |title=Dot's In A Name No More |publisher=Wired news |date=2001-08-31 |access-date=2005-12-27 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060716214416/http://www.wired.com/news/business/1,46403-0.html |archive-date=2006-07-16 }}

The burst of the dot-com bubble triggered a wave of market panic, leading to widespread sell-offs of stocks from dot-com companies. This selling frenzy further depressed the values of these stocks, and by 2002, estimated investor losses had reached an astounding $5 trillion.{{citation needed|date=August 2023}}

• Brick and mortar
• Dot-com commercials during Super Bowl XXXIV
• List of largest Internet companies

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Category:Dot-com bubble

Category:E-commerce