In the late 90's, the internet came to be recognized by the world as a means of communication without borders, efficient and could generate enormous competitive advantages and open up many opportunities for companies. That the internet is formidable, there is no doubt; the problem that occurred at that time was the overvaluation of this means of communication, generating a false idea that it would be an instrument that could generate an unlimited amount of profits.
Around 1999 the migration of companies to the virtual sphere began, in fact. At the time, people believed that the fact that a company had a website, in addition to signifying status and creating a more modern image of it, was a revolutionary step into the new millennium. Thus, companies, NGOs and other types of organizations started to have their own spaces in the large network.
The resources that were destined to other sectors were redirected to the development of software, tools and websites on the internet. The e-commerce issue brought the image of a future of absurd profits. One of the greatest symbols of this fever was the creation of Nasdaq, a new stock exchange dedicated exclusively to the technology area. We can also mention the creation of large corporations, as in the case of the America On Line (AOL) and Time-Warner meeting, an obvious consequence of the moment. With all of this, the stock prices of “dot-com” companies have exploded positively.
Eventually the "bubble" would burst. When the world saw that the internet was not that unlimited source of profits and that its projections were totally wrong, the price of shares of companies that operated on the internet, which rose constantly, began to fall into free fall, causing the bankruptcy of many corporations.
Although the "bubble" burst shook the internet market, big companies like Google and Yahoo survived. In addition, the organizations that resisted such a period were able to take advantage of the situation, and with the resources they raised in the pre-bubble moments, even diminished after the critical phase, created efficient products and services to the point of placing them in positions of leadership.
Although the phenomenon has been synonymous with damage, the "bubble" of the 2000s was important to make the internet take, in the following years, large proportions, and in a much more solid way. In 1995, there were approximately 16 million people online. Today there are 957 million Internet users worldwide.
Many critics claim that we are close to a new "bubble" burst. This is the case of the so-called Web 2.0, based on collective intelligence. A case that receives a lot of attention from specialists is Facebook, one of the countless social networking sites present on the network. In October 2007, Microsoft shelled out $240 million for a 1.6% stake in the site, which gives a simple website a market value of around US$15 billion, one and a half times the market value of Embraer, the third-largest aircraft manufacturer in the world!
Indeed, the symptoms are similar to those that occurred at the beginning of the millennium: an immense wave of speculation, companies without business models with large market value and extravagance in negotiations financial. It remains to be seen whether this new "bubble" will, in fact, burst. It is good to plan to minimize damage.
By James Dantas
Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/informatica/bolha-dos-anos-2000.htm
