The 2000 collapse of technology shares after the Nasdaq Composite peaked was called the dot-com crash.
During the late 1990s, investors poured money into internet companies, including firms with little revenue or no profits. Low interest rates, venture capital, enthusiastic forecasts, and easy access to public markets encouraged companies to add “.com” to their identities and pursue rapid expansion.
The Nasdaq Composite reached its closing peak on March 10, 2000. Confidence then weakened, and technology shares fell sharply. Many internet companies failed, while established technology firms also lost large portions of their market value. The downturn continued for several years and contributed to a U.S. recession in the early 2000s.
The dot-com crash is not identical to the 2008 financial crisis. The former centered on overvalued technology and internet shares; the latter centered on credit, housing, and banking. Some internet companies, including Amazon, survived and later became much larger, showing that the crash did not invalidate the internet itself.