Economics
Investors poured billions into companies with no profits, and no plan to ever make one
Through the late 1990s, the promise of the internet sent the price of almost any '.com' stock soaring, regardless of revenue or a working business model. The Nasdaq index rose about 600% between 1995 and its March 2000 peak, then fell 78% over the following two years as the bubble burst. Amazon and eBay survived the crash; hundreds of other startups like Pets.com and Webvan vanished within months of going public.