Happy Birthday – 25 Years of Dot-Com Bliss

 

March 18, 2010

In March, 1985, what were you doing and where were you?

Here’s a glimpse of what was going on in the world:

• Mikhail Gorbachev became General Secretary of the Communist Party in the Soviet Union.
• In Beirut, Lebanon, Associated Press newsman Terry Anderson was taken hostage.
• Expo ’85, a World’s Fair, was held on Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan.
• Back to the Future later became the highest-grossing movie.
• The first dot-com was born.

During all of that 25 years ago, I was forging my business philosophy in broadcast journalism while covering events and trends, and interviewing newsmakers. I had already managed newsrooms in radio and television, and met President Gerald Ford after leaving the White House, as well as Ronald and Nancy Reagan on their second campaign for the nation’s highest office.

Terrorism was on the rise, but was insignificant. It did seem as though the last frontier was solving human relationships and achieving world peace.

In anticipating the future, thoughts of entrepreneurship did not include the Internet. But that was long before the Digital Age. How many of us thought our lives would be transformed by the Internet?

A day doesn’t go by that we aren’t in awe of the potential of the Internet, even a quarter of a century after the first dot-com. That now includes 80 million domains and 250 million Web sites.

If you want to save some time counting, here’s the breakdown of Web sites:

• 11.9 million e-commerce
• 4.3 million entertainment sites
• 3.1 million financial
• 1.8 million sports

The first domain, symbolics.com, was registered by Symbolics, Inc., now a defunct computer manufacturer in Cambridge, MA.

Excluding the dot-com bust, the Internet’s been a fun roller coaster ride.

With apologies to the U.S. Postal Service and its declining revenue, consider all the new products and enhanced communication made possible by the Internet.

Now, we have insights as to what’s occurred and what might happen thanks to a new study by the Information Technology & Information Foundation. It’s entitled, “The Internet Economy 25 Years After .Com.”

The think tank estimates1.7 billion of the planet’s population, or 25.6 percent, is Internet users. That includes 73 million Chinese in 2007. Economically, it says the Internet is, of course, a center for commerce totaling $1.5 trillion.

In another 10 years, the study anticipates it will total $3.8 trillion – rivaling Germany’s gross domestic product.

The study recommends a universal implementation of technology, such as health information technology, platforms for mobile payments, and wireless and wired broadband, promoting digital literacy.

The Internet is making the world smaller. Maybe we’ll still see world peace. So, happy birthday…and many more!

To see the study: www.itif.org.

From the Coach’s Corner, broadcasters have certainly gone with the new media. Here’s the list of who owns the big media companies.