The speculative boom and crash in technology shares around the turn of the millennium was the dot-com bubble.
The bubble grew during the 1990s as investors poured money into internet businesses. Many companies had little revenue, no profits, or untested business models, yet their share prices rose rapidly because investors expected enormous future growth. The spread of the commercial internet made technology investing especially fashionable.
The Nasdaq Composite, a technology-heavy U.S. market index, reached a closing peak of 5,048.62 on March 10, 2000. It then fell sharply as investors reassessed valuations and many internet companies failed to meet expectations. The decline affected technology firms, venture capital, and broader equity markets.
The term “dot-com” refers to the .com domain suffix used by many internet companies. Not every technology company failed: firms such as Amazon survived and later became major businesses. The bubble describes the market-wide speculation, not the internet itself.