4 ms·

Ask HN: Best Dotcom Bubble Stories

16 points by mergy 13y ago

As we debate whether or not we are in a social media-driven tech bubble or not, it might be fun for those of us who lived through the one 15 years or so ago to post your favorite stories around the excess and lack of success in that era.

SuperChihuahua 13y ago
Here's one from an interview with Chris Sacca (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6NpHbMFaQ8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6NpHbMFaQ8): In the late 1990s, Chris Sacca used his student loan to start a company within the lawsuit industry - not to pay tuition. But he realized the idea was bad, he didn't have the skills needed, and he didn't have any investors. So before he ran out of money, he began day-trading stocks with the remaining money. This was during the buildup of the tech bubble so he made a huge profit from the trading. When the bubble exploded, his wealth decreased from 12 million to -2.8 million. His surroundings had convinced him that he was a stock market genius - so he thought he knew something. When the stock market crashed, he thought he was just unlucky. He was now 25 years old, no network, and had to find a way to make 2.8 million.
- man_bear_pig 13y ago
  In 2013, there was this company that snapped pictures and took a comment. user engagement was through the roof among an unknown number of 15-23 year olds. Hundreds of millions of photos uploaded every 24 hours ("more than facebook!" they would shout) instead of the ipo bubble of the 90s there was a bubble bidding war among the startups that themselves barely made any money but nevertheless, managed to raised billions of dollars... this app is a 3bn dollar app! nope tomorrow it'll be worth 4. why? because we know that next month it'll be worth 10bn!!! based on my perpetual growth method valuation that my 21 year old intern who previously interned at GS in sanitary engineering division last summer created, this app should overtake FB and Twitter! the ceo who just stole the idea and fkd over his own friend replied, "woah. let’s take a step back fellas. we're worth way more than that! we have potential to save privacy. what's the price tag on that? gazillion at the minimum. Maybe kakakakazillion?... we created an industry that didn't exist 12 months ago. ephemeral communication!" From wall street to silicon valley to local teen bloggers, people were #obsessed #addicted to this app. then with a single snap, #crash happened. but nobody remembers what really happened because all the memories were on that app... with the exception of one man and his servers. that's when the next bubble started. selling terabytes of worthless BIG DATA crunched by NASA scientists. #gg. Almost all bubbles last longer than most people realize. that's because the people who inevitably show their hands and forced to pop it are also the ones who want to continue to ride the bubbles (misalignment of incentives due to selfish greed vs. institutional capital). lemming investors who get in late need to keep marking up their books and re-setting valuation occurs higher and higher every quarter. however, only when exits do not happen, when growth does not occur, when monetization plans do not become realized do the general public's sentiment shift and liquidity stop flowing and then… bids stop coming. and that my friends can take a mighty long time. some of the smartest people who shorted the first dot come bubble went belly up. that is because most people are lemmings, mere momentum driven followers in everything they do and the rest in the middle just want to get out of the rush hour freight train heading toward the apex of Mt. Neverneverland.
Mankhool 13y ago
One of my favourites is Boo.com http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boo.com http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boo.com
- Mankhool 13y ago
  A list of the top 10 from CNET http://www.cnet.com/1990-11136_1-6278387-1.html http://www.cnet.com/1990-11136_1-6278387-1.html
  - unfunco 13y ago
    An interesting item on that list is Flooz: Flooz was meant to be online currency that would serve as an alternative to credit cards. It boggles the mind why anyone would rather use an "online currency" than an actual credit card, but that didn't stop Flooz from raising a staggering $35 million from investors and signing up retail giants such as Tower Records, Barnes & Noble, and Restoration Hardware. That sounds eerily familiar in the modern economy.
meerita 13y ago
GovWorks? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GovWorks http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GovWorks They've made a movie too.
kschua 13y ago
The CueCat for me http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CueCat http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CueCat
adventured 13y ago
The US produced a lot of spectacular rise & fall billionaire stories, but none were greater than the two that Japan produced. Masayoshi Son, of Softbank, hit a peak of $76 or so billion. Eventually dwindling down to $1.1 billion, a 'loss' of about $75 billion. Don't feel too bad for him though, perhaps fittingly given the discussion of a bubble again, he's back up to $16 billion in net worth and ascending (75% gain in wealth this past year). Yasumitsu Shigeta was worth $42 billion at the peak of the bubble. Numerically he basically lost it all; what he had left was a rounding error. He was the founder of telecom company Hikari Tsushin. In 1999, he was Japan's youngest billionaire at 34. He's now back to being a billionaire again, 14 years later. http://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesasia/2013/04/03/fifteen-years-of-ups-and-downs-for-yasumitsu-shigeta/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesasia/2013/04/03/fifteen-ye...
jgalt212 13y ago
My favorite bubble story is Airbnb building a conference room modelled after the War Room in Dr. Strangelove: http://www.modernluxury.com/san-francisco/story/workspace-arms-race http://www.modernluxury.com/san-francisco/story/workspace-ar...

16 points by mergy 13y ago

SuperChihuahua 13y ago

Here's one from an interview with Chris Sacca (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6NpHbMFaQ8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6NpHbMFaQ8): In the late 1990s, Chris Sacca used his student loan to start a company within the lawsuit industry - not to pay tuition. But he realized the idea was bad, he didn't have the skills needed, and he didn't have any investors. So before he ran out of money, he began day-trading stocks with the remaining money. This was during the buildup of the tech bubble so he made a huge profit from the trading. When the bubble exploded, his wealth decreased from 12 million to -2.8 million. His surroundings had convinced him that he was a stock market genius - so he thought he knew something. When the stock market crashed, he thought he was just unlucky. He was now 25 years old, no network, and had to find a way to make 2.8 million.

man_bear_pig 13y ago
In 2013, there was this company that snapped pictures and took a comment. user engagement was through the roof among an unknown number of 15-23 year olds. Hundreds of millions of photos uploaded every 24 hours ("more than facebook!" they would shout) instead of the ipo bubble of the 90s there was a bubble bidding war among the startups that themselves barely made any money but nevertheless, managed to raised billions of dollars... this app is a 3bn dollar app! nope tomorrow it'll be worth 4. why? because we know that next month it'll be worth 10bn!!! based on my perpetual growth method valuation that my 21 year old intern who previously interned at GS in sanitary engineering division last summer created, this app should overtake FB and Twitter! the ceo who just stole the idea and fkd over his own friend replied, "woah. let’s take a step back fellas. we're worth way more than that! we have potential to save privacy. what's the price tag on that? gazillion at the minimum. Maybe kakakakazillion?... we created an industry that didn't exist 12 months ago. ephemeral communication!" From wall street to silicon valley to local teen bloggers, people were #obsessed #addicted to this app. then with a single snap, #crash happened. but nobody remembers what really happened because all the memories were on that app... with the exception of one man and his servers. that's when the next bubble started. selling terabytes of worthless BIG DATA crunched by NASA scientists. #gg. Almost all bubbles last longer than most people realize. that's because the people who inevitably show their hands and forced to pop it are also the ones who want to continue to ride the bubbles (misalignment of incentives due to selfish greed vs. institutional capital). lemming investors who get in late need to keep marking up their books and re-setting valuation occurs higher and higher every quarter. however, only when exits do not happen, when growth does not occur, when monetization plans do not become realized do the general public's sentiment shift and liquidity stop flowing and then… bids stop coming. and that my friends can take a mighty long time. some of the smartest people who shorted the first dot come bubble went belly up. that is because most people are lemmings, mere momentum driven followers in everything they do and the rest in the middle just want to get out of the rush hour freight train heading toward the apex of Mt. Neverneverland.

Mankhool 13y ago

One of my favourites is Boo.com http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boo.com http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boo.com

Mankhool 13y ago
A list of the top 10 from CNET http://www.cnet.com/1990-11136_1-6278387-1.html http://www.cnet.com/1990-11136_1-6278387-1.html
- unfunco 13y ago
  An interesting item on that list is Flooz: Flooz was meant to be online currency that would serve as an alternative to credit cards. It boggles the mind why anyone would rather use an "online currency" than an actual credit card, but that didn't stop Flooz from raising a staggering $35 million from investors and signing up retail giants such as Tower Records, Barnes & Noble, and Restoration Hardware. That sounds eerily familiar in the modern economy.

meerita 13y ago

GovWorks? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GovWorks http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GovWorks They've made a movie too.

kschua 13y ago

The CueCat for me http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CueCat http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CueCat

adventured 13y ago

The US produced a lot of spectacular rise & fall billionaire stories, but none were greater than the two that Japan produced. Masayoshi Son, of Softbank, hit a peak of $76 or so billion. Eventually dwindling down to $1.1 billion, a 'loss' of about $75 billion. Don't feel too bad for him though, perhaps fittingly given the discussion of a bubble again, he's back up to $16 billion in net worth and ascending (75% gain in wealth this past year). Yasumitsu Shigeta was worth $42 billion at the peak of the bubble. Numerically he basically lost it all; what he had left was a rounding error. He was the founder of telecom company Hikari Tsushin. In 1999, he was Japan's youngest billionaire at 34. He's now back to being a billionaire again, 14 years later. http://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesasia/2013/04/03/fifteen-years-of-ups-and-downs-for-yasumitsu-shigeta/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesasia/2013/04/03/fifteen-ye...

jgalt212 13y ago

My favorite bubble story is Airbnb building a conference room modelled after the War Room in Dr. Strangelove: http://www.modernluxury.com/san-francisco/story/workspace-arms-race http://www.modernluxury.com/san-francisco/story/workspace-ar...