Dot-com & internet
The bubble of 1995–2001 funded businesses that had never earned a dollar of profit, and a few that never would. Some of the ideas were right and a decade early. Others outlived the crash and are still here, much smaller than they were.
Post-mortems in Dot-com & internet
Pets.com
1998 – 2000
The most famous mascot of the dot-com era, Amazon as its biggest shareholder, and a Super Bowl ad. It never sold a quarter’s goods for more than they cost to deliver.
Webvan
1996 – 2001
Raised more than $1.2 billion, built warehouses for millions of orders, and stopped delivering on a Monday in July 2001.
Groupon
2008 – present
Still open, still listed, and a fraction of its former size. The daily deal that turned down Google now sells with about a seventh of the staff and under a third of the customers it had at its peak.
AOL
1985 – present
It mailed America a free trial, charged $19.95 a month for the internet and used its share price to buy Time Warner. Broadband made the product unnecessary. The name is on its fifth owner.