Bubbles: Part 7 - Dot Com (1995 - 2000)
Let’s look at the US technology stock market bubble of the late '90s and break down what happened.
What The F#ck Happened?
Setting The Scene
In 1993, the internet was in its infancy and was inaccessible to the average person. The ability to transfer data globally was genuinely revolutionary, but only 2.3% of the U.S. population was online as it was expensive and difficult to use. But, the release of Mosaic changed all that. Mosaic was a web browser that showed pictures alongside text and was the first to do it. It made the internet easy to use and accessible at home. Within one month of its release, the total amount of web traffic was up 1000%.
This growth spurred entrepreneurs to move into this space as it seemed like there was a lot of untapped potential within this burgeoning industry. Further to this, interest rates were at their lowest point since the ‘70s, and it was relatively easy to start a business as capital was the cheapest it had been in a long time.
Startups began forming all over the co…