The fall of the dot com

a good look at how bad it's really getting

[kcbuckshot]

Not trying to make it sound like the endo of the world, but I found these stock highs and lows pretty.

[vtoreport.com...]

[rcjordan]

>end of the world
>
heh, heh, KC. We're pretty numb here. Step into our time machine:

dot com morgue: body bags optional [webmasterworld.com]

[kcbuckshot]

Figured I would explain, I know another forum where they would be jumping out the window after reading something like that. I think it's great that the public is finally seeing that not everything on the net will make money, it still takes hard work and common business practices.

[minnapple]

The fall of the dot.coms have been the best thing to ever happen to my business. As a small business I have needed to keep by overhead low, no fancy offices and frills. Each purchase I have made, either hardware or software, has been done only out of need not out of want. Over the six months I have visited several previously overfunded dot.com companies, to rescue web sites that have been lost in the undertow of their demise. Many of these companies lost (or never had) the concept of adding value to their clients business and only delivered a product. Once their funding was lost they were not able to deliver even the basic product.
The fall of the dot.coms allows companies that have a mission of making clients money, to rise to the top!
:)

[rcjordan]

>been the best thing to ever happen to my business.
>
From a site publisher's perspective, I also feel the same way. I can't wait for some of this over-funded deadwood to drop off the face of the earth and to quit sucking up bandwidth and consumer time. Like you, I've kept overhead (obscenely) low -at first because I was unsure and later due to bunker mentality- and I intend to be out in front waving the flag when the smoke clears.

[chiyo]

Good points. The incredible over valuations and debt to be serviced meant that web infrastructure tools also climbed astronomically in price. What Macromedia want for their Web site design projects and even MS for Fornt Page is really quite ridiculous. We HAD to stick to simple free or low cost solutions and found in the end these were as useful or even better. We are in a part of the world where labour is cheap, but paying in US dollars for anything is crazy.

Hopefully one result of the fallpout will be more realistic pricing for infrastuructural software and the like will mecome more realistic.

[rcjordan]

>infrastructure

Hmmmmm.... There are other benefits of being a survivor. We're going to have a buyers' market on some items like dedicated servers because they ramped up when everything was hot-hot-hot.

[bigjohnt]

Survival of the fittest is a fact of life <and death> in ALL businesses. The net has mrely accelerated this phenom with dotcoms. High burn rate = high Learn rate = higher mortality.
Due to the communications ease of the web, we see it real time.
"Please remain seated throughout the entire performance"

[DomainGuy]

Times change and the companies that couldn't keep up are falling because of it.

We only survived because we changed our site every few weeks to keep ahead of our competitors.

I believe the falling stars will only make way for the stronger ones to move up.

There were times when we said "Time to get another job." but we didn't!

Dont let these Dot Com Downer guys get you worried! Let them get you thinking about how you will stay alive and work harder.

We are now at an incredible high and I can only say it is because of our constant changes.

[minnapple]

One additional benefit from the dot.com woes is that there is now more available talent available at a lower cost.

Conventional design companies that added web design to their business, have been backing away from these services, due to the dot.com scare.

Businesses that focused their core business in web design and development can now capitalize on a market that has less capacity and decreased labor cost.

When capacity decreases in any industry, the price of products or service delivered should go up.
Unless the demand falls faster the capacity.

From what I have experienced, the demand is still strong.
;) Good Times Now and Ahead!

[chiyo]

it's obviously a professional lot here... I'm counting a major proportion of dot com failures to quick-buck merchants, who staffed with people who didnt even use email 3 years ago.. Real ideas and talent cant compete with walls of money.

Now the quick buck merchants with the silly money being swept away time for the smarter guys to rise to the top.

A successful 2001 to all!