The 2000 market crash that followed the collapse of speculation in internet and technology companies was the Dot-com crash.
The preceding Dot-com bubble was fueled by enthusiasm for commercial internet businesses. Investors often assigned enormous valuations to companies with little revenue or no profits, while many new firms raised money through initial public offerings and spent heavily on growth.
The Nasdaq Composite reached 5,048.62 on March 10, 2000. It then fell as investors questioned whether the companies could justify their valuations. Rising interest rates, failed business models, and a shift away from speculative technology shares deepened the decline.
The crash destroyed vast amounts of paper wealth and led to many internet-company failures, but it did not eliminate the internet’s long-term economic importance. Companies such as Amazon survived and later expanded, while the episode demonstrated that a transformative technology can coexist with unsustainable valuations.