Dot-com bubble bursts

Through the late 1990s, investors poured money into internet startups with little or no revenue, on the belief that being 'first mover' online justified almost any valuation; the Nasdaq Composite index rose roughly fivefold between 1995 and its March 2000 peak. When the index began falling in spring 2000, it went on to lose about 78% of its value by October 2002, wiping out trillions of dollars in paper wealth and bankrupting companies like Pets.com and Webvan that had become emblematic of the excess. The US economy slipped into a mild recession in 2001, worsened by the September 11 attacks, though the downturn was much shallower than the 2008 crisis that followed later. Survivors of the bust, including Amazon and eBay, went on to become some of the most valuable companies in the world.