Luki

Interestingly, the first two killer applications came from the research community,

whereas the last two were created by a few young entrepreneurs.

The period from 1995 to 2001 was a roller-coaster ride for the Internet in the

financial markets. Before they were even profitable, hundreds of Internet startups

made initial public offerings and started to be traded in a stock market. Many com-
panies were valued in the billions of dollars without having any significant revenue

streams. The Internet stocks collapsed in 2000–2001, and many startups shut down.

Nevertheless, a number of companies emerged as big winners in the Internet space,

including Microsoft, Cisco, Yahoo, e-Bay, Google, and Amazon.