Birth of the Internet Final Part

The Dotcom Boom And Bust

By the mid-1990s, the internet was no longer just for scientists and students, it was open season for entrepreneurs, dreamers, and schemers. Every new website seemed a golden ticket to riches, investors poured billions into anything with “.com” slapped on it from pets.com to eToys. Valuations soared but contrarily, logic did not.

Then, in March 2000, the bubble burst. Stocks plummeted and companies vanished overnight. Over $5 trillion in market value evaporated. Offices were emptied, fortunes disappeared, and Silicon Valley was left licking its wounds. But something survived: the infrastructure. Fiber-optic cables still lay beneath oceans and data centers still hummed. The collapse cleared the ground for a new, more focused generation of tech giants.

The Rise of the Titans: Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Apple

Out of the wreckage emerged a handful of survivors and innovators who learned from the chaos:

• Amazon pivoted from books to… well, everything.
• Google refined search, then mapped the world, archived libraries, and built tools for businesses and users alike.
• Facebook turned friendships into data points and attention into billions.
• Apple made devices so central to life they felt like extensions of ourselves.

These weren’t just companies anymore, they were ecosystems. They sold hardware, software, services and bought rivals before they became threats. They controlled communication, commerce, entertainment, even health. They became the new empires.

Data: The New Oil

The currency of this new empire wasn’t gold or land, it was data. From what we liked to where we went, who we spoke to and even how long we lingered on a photo. Algorithms replaced oracles, predictive analytics became more reliable than gut instinct and targeted ads became sharper than arrows, piercing directly into wallets and desires. “If you’re not paying for the product, you are the product.” A phrase born from this era and terrifyingly true.

Companies knew more about us than our governments. Even sometimes more than we knew ourselves. Terms like “surveillance capitalism” entered public discourse. Social media shaped elections, fueled revolutions, and spread conspiracies as fast as cat memes. Platforms claimed neutrality while algorithms quietly pushed content that enraged, engaged, and entrapped.

Privacy became a battlefield. Data breaches exposed billions and laws tried to catch up: GDPR in Europe, CCPA in California but enforcement lagged behind innovation. For every regulation, a loophole emerged.

The Internet of Everything and Everyone

Today, the internet is not a place we visit; it is the air we breathe. Our homes listen and fridges talk. Our watches track our hearts while Clouds hold our memories. Apps predict our needs and AI answers our questions, writes our texts, curates our experiences. But with this convenience comes control. A handful of companies shape our news, our shopping, our social lives, and our worldviews. They govern attention which has evidently became the most valuable commodity of all.

What began as a Cold War curiosity became humanity’s nervous system, it connects continents but divides communities. It democratizes knowledge but concentrates power. It liberates and it imprisons. The internet’s greatest invention wasn’t the web page, the search engine, or the smartphone. Rather, it was the idea that everything could be connected and in the modern day, monetized.

Where it leads next?, only history will tell.

Next Time: The Benin Empire Part One — Rise from the Forest

Before Europe’s empires carved Africa, there was Benin: a kingdom of art, war, and wonder. Discover its rise through walls, warriors, and unrivaled craftsmanship.