The global collapse of technology shares after the late-1990s internet boom is known as the dot-com crash.
During the dot-com bubble, investors paid very high prices for internet companies, including many businesses with little revenue or no profits. Venture funding and public offerings encouraged rapid expansion, while the spread of the World Wide Web created genuine excitement about future growth. The Nasdaq Composite reached a peak of 5,048.62 on March 10, 2000.
After confidence weakened, technology shares fell heavily. The Nasdaq lost about 78 percent of its value between its March 2000 peak and October 2002 low. Many internet companies failed, although survivors such as Amazon and eBay later became major businesses.
The crash did not mean that the internet itself was a failed technology. It meant that market prices had outrun realistic earnings expectations. The episode is also called the bursting of the dot-com bubble, while the Nasdaq decline describes one major market measure.