The Dot-com bubble was the speculative bubble that burst when technology stocks crashed around 2000.
During the late 1990s, investors poured money into internet-related businesses. Many companies with little revenue or no profits received very high valuations because markets expected rapid online growth. The Nasdaq Composite, heavily weighted toward technology companies, rose dramatically before reaching a peak on March 10, 2000.
After investor expectations changed, technology share prices fell. Numerous internet companies failed, while others were acquired or survived only after major restructuring. The downturn weakened venture capital activity and affected broader stock markets, although the internet itself continued to expand.
The bubble’s name comes from “dot-com,” the internet domain suffix used by many commercial websites. The crash did not mean that online commerce was permanently unsuccessful; instead, it showed that promising technology could still be attached to unsustainable business valuations.