Commercials of the Dot Com Bubble | Late 90s/Early 2000s Internet and Tech Company Ads

A collection of commercials from the 90s and early 2000s leading up to the Dot Com Bubble Burst in 2001. A glimpse into early internet history.
Many internet, computer companies, and tech companies came and went during the dot com boom and bust. Startups like Pets.com, Kozmo, CDNow, and Flooz went bust in the doc com bubble crash. Some companies of the era, like Amazon, Yahoo, eBay, and Google, survived the internet bubble crash.

[@Jaxymann]

Amazon in the 90s: “Hi there, we sell books” Amazon in the 2020s: “Hi there. We Own You.”

[@greatguyaaa]

Correct

[@AlexDe8a16Bits]

Sad but true. ☹

[@wakegary]

Amazon in the 1400s "Dont fuck with my rubber trees, y'all"

[@garrettrice4885]

Hey Amazon 2024 "worldwide megawharehouses, ventures into every industry in the world including the housing market"

[@stringfellowbalk2654]

Seemed like such a hopeful era. Every commercial director seemed to inject hope.

[@averagecarpentryskills7148]

yeah hardly any condescension or sarcasm or mean spirited attitude towards customer like ads today

[@wakegary]

lol the trick is for to always feel like a hopeful era.

[@justinoleary911]

it was truly the last great decade in america. im happy i was there

[@wakegary]

thanks for being honest with us@@justinoleary911

[@EV-wp1fj]

Having experienced early adulthood during this era, you have no idea how balls out agressively hopeful it was. The AI hype of today somewhat reminds me of that time, but the 90's tech optimism was on complete steroids compared to the present.

[@Ryan-we9in]

Only 121 views. This is one of most important historical records we have.

[@AckzaTV]

Show it to Bitcoin people for hubris

[@jasonlieberman4606]

The video was pretty recent then. Check the view count now... Over 16k as of Oct 2020

[@YourboiM]

16k views

[@btcsahil850]

@@AckzaTV Yes

[@kevingc2004]

26k views

[@MorbidlyObeseChell]

I like how most job sites back then had easy or fast job applications when now it's online required and 1 job application takes 30 minutes alone

[@fairycrusher3116]

Man, commercials back then are SO much better than they are now

[@Danleesixoneonetwofive]

Yes

[@one7decimal2eight]

No agenda back then except to sell products

[@SLone3251]

So scary watching these and seeing how fascinated the world and businesses were about the boom of the Internet. No one could've imagined how the online world would be like today.

[@blenderbachcgi]

No one expected that every website would become plain, flat, and pathetically boring...

[@SLone3251]

@@blenderbachcgi In the beginning of its life, yeah, the internet's sites were like that...but things obviously changed over time.

[@blenderbachcgi]

@@SLone3251 For the worst... Oversimplified, yet insanely bloated...

[@kellynn739]

It's weird seeing Amazon in its infancy. These folks have no idea what it would grow up to be.

[@DeyRapingEveryone]

Scary? You sound like a little bitch.

[@woreno]

Something I realize now is that 90s advertising was more powerfull and energetic than today's

[@brandonc223]

people still had hope

[@nick56677]

"I don't like standing in line for a book for 10 minutes, I just go online and click Order and pay an extra 12 dollars and wait a week or 2 for the same book"

[@willshowman4575]

12:30 giving me a heart attack

[@judilynn9569]

Seems I'm not alone.

[@ellie8161]

What gets me is that the ad doesn't mention planes at all. Some animator was probably like "this shot of a building isn't very interesting; we should add a plane to draw the eye" or whatever and now everyone who sees it takes psychic damage lol

[@Kris.G]

bloody hell...

[@cotyallen90]

Anyone know what year that commercial came out? I never seen it. Could be another piece of predictive programming.

[@arielchandia2]

That is a really small plane

[@chickenmaster66]

These are awesome thank you so much retro stuff like this gives me that nostalgia of being awake early in the morning and school being called off because of the snow

[@CFL-TECH]

Back then you flaunted you were a .Com and tech hip and showing we were entering more into the information age going into this futuristic 2000's. Today it's expected and it's spoiled us..lol

[@husseinandout3867]

10:26 "you may never go to the grocery store again". Truer words were never spoken lol

[@jackbro655]

man i missed so much of this era, i was born in 1999, i wish i could have experience a little bit more of this

[@Dewaynesite1]

I was 9 at the time and got my own computer for Christmas with internet access. I use to play the CD ROM games such as Sim City and Half Life. I still say the internet was built better back then as in web surfing. My favorite site was Dragon Ball Z it was off the hook. By 2003 is slowly changed from the 1998-2002 era.

[@tn420animations9]

I was born in 93 and we didn't have internet in my house so I missed alot but then again I had no need for it. My aunt had a computer and all I did was look up south park toys on ebay thats all I knew how to do

[@MrMentalSoul]

I was born in 1990 -- and I say the same of the personal computer revolution of the 80s. What a golden era in technology.

[@websurfin2010]

@@MrMentalSoul we are living in the golden era of technology!

[@ImNotADeeJay]

Then you would be older... I wish I was born in 1999

[@corntrollio854]

Better days back then. Such a wonderful time to be alive. The 90's and 00's we so great.

[@robertferguson5562]

No

[@karinadelma]

@@robertferguson5562Who cares bro.

[@Bishop228]

That's just some nostalgia talking, bub. Trust me, you wouldn't really want to go back if it were possible. Those days weren't "better" for many folks.

[@karinadelma]

@@corntrollio854 disagree, only i would go back in one day and never going back. Thats why people are entitled nowadays.

[@corntrollio854]

@@karinadelma You care A LOT. Sheesh!

[@DoraemonFan-ww3jm]

I never knew Amazon was originally a book-only website.

[@OneyButtwillies]

Yeah. By the time amazon started carrying so much other stuff, here in Canada we were still stuck with just the books for years until about 8-9 years ago.

[@jonathans44]

And Netflix originally sent you DVDs as a subscription alternative to blockbuster ;)

[@plateshutoverlock]

Even back then they could've offered e-book versons of what they were selling. But back then-"oMg wE cAnT aLlOw tHaT cUz p1rAcy!"

[@kristopherryanwatson]

seriously ? it was so for nearly a decade before it offers everything we know as it does these days..

[@lxbronx6]

@@jonathans44you had to mail em back too. 😂😂😂

[@metromancer]

12:30 just gonna leave this here

[@crescentator336]

Oh my god

[@scdu]

I said holy shit when I saw that

[@smartinez281]

👀👀

[@stokedsteezy]

WHAT THE FUCK BRUH

[@julianj9830]

💀💀💀💀💀💀

[@dranzer2545]

Why are these commercials so well put together? It’s amazing how I can’t find a terrible logo design or creative flaw in these commercials.

[@skiptowne5724]

The very thing that was being promoted, the internet, is responsible for the ruination of many things and people. As Alanis would say, isn't that ironic?

[@lancebermejo3319]

Back when pixelated textures, lack of ambient occlusion, ambient shadows, and low polygon objects in games were considered realistic lol

[@delrachdubal]

During the Era of Quake 3, Unreal Tournament, and just so many other games.... I wouldn't trade it for the world. Magical times indeed.

[@ikagura]

Ambient Occlusion isn't really realistic

[@ikagura]

@@Danilla229 If I wanted realism I would just like a cleaner looking 3D instead of putting those "cinematic effects". Anyway I prefer arcade and fantasy-looking game that those that tries to be realistic and ended up aging less well.

[@Danilla229]

You should realise though that they were considered realistic compared to 2D arcades, not to real world. Always funny to see someone who thinks ppl were primitive a couple of decades ago.

[@plateshutoverlock]

The first Doom, the one that had only sprites and a game engine that wasn't really 3D (no rooms above rooms or overhanging architecture) managed to scare me more than one time. Today it seems laughable, but back in the mid 1990s, it was THE game to have.

[@sunnex474]

I like how it looks so much happier and simpler back then when it really wasn’t

[@Thehouseoffail]

It's because the commercials don't have the same level of information overload compared to the advertising we see today. It creates a false sense of cleanliness, simplicity, and slower speeds.

[@ed9492]

It's all relative.

[@9852323]

No it was.

[@bilko_4732]

12:30 is quite eerie indeed.🤔

[@maxsingwell]

Foreshadowing….super creepy.

[@SvenSon44]

The angle it's filmed from is literally the exact angle of that one piece of footage..

[@plateshutoverlock]

There was a pre 9/11 rap album cover that depicted damage to the WTC that was errily like the actual impact damage to those towers. The copies of that album that had this image were recalled after 9/11.

[@telequacker-9529]

6:35 ... "You can apply for 10 jobs in 10 seconds...." Damn, it's more like 10 hours now, even on fiber

[@SvenSon44]

Linkedin Easy Apply?

[@LKonstantina915]

I love the late 90s and 00s era . . I was born in 2002 so sadly i didnt experience most of it. :(

[@slendermanRblx]

Same. I was born in late 2002.

[@swandarkart2752]

that's what the internet is for ! experience the wonders of the y2k era

[@CamdenBloke]

Who else is looking up these websites? A few of these, like snowball and kosmo I don't even remember existing.

[@christianhardtofind6349]

Anyone remember a commercial from around this time where two sisters were sharing a phone line and one sister was just hanging up on her sister's boyfriend. "Hey, was that Matt?" "No."

[@TrillAntho]

Thanks, exactly what I was searching for

[@ifzwischendurch]

Everything you see in the commercials became completely normal. It just didn't happen as quickly as investors had hoped. The infrastructure wasn't ready yet. The Internet was slow and expensive (Websites never loaded as fast as they looked in commercials) and it took time for it to become widespread among the population. The market wasn't big enough for everyone to survive. So the bubble burst. But all the investors were fundamentally not wrong. Today we have this world where we do almost everything online.

[@AK-47ISTHEWAY]

I still remember that CDNOW commercial 🤣

[@greengooflight]

i love the time when tv still was fun

[@l.abuddy23]

I wouldn't mind watching these advirtisment instead of what we have today. So much more effort and creativity.

[@edwardbliss8931]

Around this time, they still haven't figured out that people should pay for printouts yet. So you'd have people standing at the printer for ten minutes while they print out 80 pages from Geocities and Tripod sites.

[@noontimewhale]

"Next time you're on the Internet..."

[@laszloszegedi5465]

Oh yeah, I miss that time when we actually had lives outside of the net and we weren't online 24/7. Using computers was just a part of our lives NOT the entirety of it...

[@fueyo2229]

​@@laszloszegedi5465 You can go out, you're not trapped with your computer

[@SammEater]

History repeats itself.

[@alexlents4689]

It should say something about the impact most of these left that I’ve never even heard of most of these.

[@yoshiyt5742]

why did I just watch 14 minutes worth of commercials?

[@NathanChisholm041]

Same!

[@ObiWanBillKenobi]

4:00 A TV commercial for an Internet browser?? I don't think I've ever seen that before or since.

[@Dumb_Killjoy]

By this point, Netscape wasn't a browser anymore. AOL bought them, and they rebranded into a web portal/ISP.

[@ifzwischendurch]

Later, there were also TV commercials for Google Chrome.

[@opticalecho119]

I wish I was just a couple years older so I could remember this period better

[@tn420animations9]

I remember it like it was weeks ago

[@belstar1128]

Yea i remember this time but i could not do anything with computers apart from playing video games looking at these ads and society at the time it would have been so cool if a had my current skills and abilities.

[@opticalecho119]

@James Bond I’m so happy to find someone who’s noticed the same thing. The late 90’s and 2000/2001 before that fateful September was a time when the world was full of hope and there was so much promise. The culture of the time and it’s flamboyance as a whole is emblematic of this. Then on 9/11 the hope died. Mid-late 2000s culture lost so much of the vibrancy that had existed just a few years before as a reflection of the darkening of the world around us. Now we find ourselves in the present day and I don’t think I need to say anything about where we’re at as a global society 21 years after 9/11 and the subsequent war in the Middle East killed our collective hope for the future. I hope this finds you well, take care in this crazy world we live in.

[@ecsyntric]

we officially declare you a digital historian

[@erik-janvanoosten1450]

Damn,, that UPS add is ominous in hindsight...

[@Slowerdive99]

Erik-Jan van Oosten 12:29 yikes

[@AckzaTV]

Go watch "ATT Ad You WIll" to have your mind blown

[@AckzaTV]

oh the 911 refrence lol i just saw that was the UPS ad

[@ObiWanBillKenobi]

11:59 If Dr. Seuss worked in retail.

[@colemanbonner]

Omg the brief clip of Descent: Freespace in the Dell commercial sent me for a fuckin emotional rollercoaster

[@GoodBeat101]

Truth. My parents had that exact dell desktop. The days of beige boxes…

[@Weensx]

Days of Final fantasy 8, dreamcast, pentium 3 and half life

[@mst3kanita]

2:52: the voice of Ed Helms, pre daily show.

[@exaucemayunga22]

Same thing we see today with the Cryptocurency Bubble

[@pleoTCA]

It's funny how about like 3-5 of them are still a thing

[@StarHelix-]

12:29 I wonder how many millennials just had a knee jerk reaction.

[@Jaxymann]

You can tell this was a pre 2001 ad

[@plateshutoverlock]

It was. An ad like this would be corporate suicide after 9/11.

[@paulgermano7837]

Yeah, I saw it and figured this was made before 9/11

[@Sitharos]

Oh man... Netscape. Now that brings me back! 🙂

[@INDUSTRIAL_WOLF]

Watching these makes me feel like I'm 20 and working at Sun Microsystems again.

[@XxLIVRAxX]

Streaming, working online from home, online grocery delivery, the shape of things to come

[@aurathedraak7909]

thought that plane was gonna hit that tower lel

[@mmilbrandt25]

Ahhh nostalgia.....I feel old now...

[@primalstorm1029]

Been trying for years to find a commercial from the early 2000's. There was a guy describing a computer to retail employee meant to mock Best Buy sales people, they're getting more excited with each component described, then even share an enthusiastic "NIIIICE!" and a fist bump. Then the employee asks the customer "so, where you gonna get all that?" I've scoured Google and KZbin, even asked ChatGPT. So I'm going to try asking actual human beings (shocking, I know) Has anyone here ever seen this? It was a commercial for customer computer builds so like Dell or Gateway maybe. This has been bothering me for 20 years.

[@Bronceado7184]

Well as a non American now I see how the hype was built that lead to the bubble 😅

[@eddiealgarin6155]

Soundgarden reference. Awesome

[@NGOTB]

I was born in early 2001. I really wish I was born in the correct time so I could experience all of this in it’ prime.

[@joshymcdaniel9233]

Late 80s for me’ so was a young kid in 90s 13 by 2000 ish it’s mind blowing to see how we went from very little tech to what it is now’ I remember when caller ID came out It was magical 😂 so many great 90s shows/ toys My junior year High School only really rich ppl texted cause it was like 10 cents a message’ I thought that’s so weird why would I want to Text someone instead of just call 😂😂 how diff it is now’ MTV was the “cool” thing when it came out We got so many AOL discs with free internet time it actually costed per min to be online back in the day’ It was a unique era in time’

[@KarlMartell732]

12:29 Early 2000s right?

[@plateshutoverlock]

It would've been pre 9/11. No company would run an ad like that after that day.

[@AckzaTV]

im so lucky i got to visit Europe (austria germany itaky uk etc) in 2004 when i was only 16 and got to experience european cable modems that charged you by the kilobyte lol just my exchange familys luck to get the one kid who had an FTP server setup at home to transfer 100mb+ of photos every night lol the guchi store in venice italy or the hotels in switzerland ut was all so fresh and clean and hitech in 2004, was after 911 tho so i bet it was even better back in europe 1999 2000 etc, musta been amazing

[@PromotingTheBeat]

Something I noticed, these businesses still exist today, just other companies are doing them instead of these ones. Talk about being at the right place at the wrong time.

[@delrachdubal]

I really, Really couldn't agree more. Webvan is a perfect example of this.

[@Pmp174]

Many of these businesses were also limited by the technology. For example many of them tried to do streaming in the early 2000s and failed because of lack of broadband and problems getting advertisers on board.

[@honorbluelovelyful]

There was so much hope and optimism in the world around this time.....the thing that was supposed to advance us has turned us all against each other....

[@Bloodgod40]

Yahoo the biggest search engine, google wasn't even a thing yet. Seems so strange in retrospect.

[@TimeMappedExplorations]

Oracle advert stands out. Amazon and Yahoo biggest websites : biggest companies British Airways and General Motors = how times do change

[@whiteydiamond]

I remember the Jarred AOL commercials that've seemingly vanished from the planet

[@Gr8thxAlot]

IBM was pushing Lotus Notes and Domino, and book-selling Amazon would start crushing it in the future. I don't even think of IBM as a tech company now.

[@realjaytruth]

88 baby lived childhood through thr 90s. Didn't know it was good as it was back then.

[@andrewr7982]

Omg it’s Amazon, you can’t escape it.

[@bpotts0401]

Cool collection

[@Nick_80599]

They made it look so easy and quick but the speed of the internet was so slow and was up to 56k, sometimes it was much slower depending on your phone line and peak time, I was lucky to get 48k

[@metromancer]

when i go to sleep these are my screensavers

[@swissmediastuff]

The internet was cooler back then. Now everything is bland and boring.

[@animalhouse8849]

6:33 I can't even apply for one job in 3600 seconds now lmao

[@Zombie-210]

This would be in time capsule in year 2060 are kids think what would internet look back then

[@9852323]

It’s crazy how modern the late 90s feels compared to the late 80s. I swear shit advanced faster in the 80s/90s and 2000s.

[@geofftech]

Man this is weird and I’m soo old.(born in ‘82)

[@delrachdubal]

I guess I will leave a footnote for those who see, this video only had 5,305 views when i was really interested in this montage. I'm So, so, so sorry for all you those who missed out on this time. It looks bad with dial up, and certain Graphics of Games, but keep in mind back then this was all cutting edge....and new. The Internet truly was exciting, it was like the Wild West of if you believe in yourself, and really dream in this new frontier, that it really mattered and mean't something. I know.... it wasn't 2001 that started it, but not to sound strange, besides the WTC incident, things went on but things did start to change. I think the biggest change is when the mainstream caught on to the internet, but also with the low intelligence and harsh sarcasm of the mainstream, the Internet isn't for Nerds or tech people anymore. It's on a Smartphone, easily accessable by anyone. This time period sure, had it's problems and wasn't perfect, but comparing the late 90's to early 2000's is almost like heaven, way way better than this time period of 2021 looking back at 2020. People, TV Shows, Video Games, Music, Wrestling, etc was more free and not as..... corporate controlled. People were......really free. It felt amazing, intoxicating to be alive and to think it will get better. Then, in 2008 to 2009, something happened in my opinion, like a shift... but taking a Dark turn. Not only the Financial Collapse in the USA, but Music, Movies, TV etc started to decline, and just slowly continued to get worse. I wish I could go back, I really do. The Internet will never be the same, ever ever ever again. And that pains me so much to say it's like losing a Best Friend. The People, Music, Women, TV, Movies, Video Games were amazing for that time of 1995-2006.

[@lard_lad_AU]

Thank you for taking the time to type all that. I agree, it was an exciting time.

[@plateshutoverlock]

Been on the internet proper scince 1996 and used online services for a couple years before that. I saw a huge change between the mid 1990s and now, and I can't say that it was all for the better. :-\ Yeah, I am not dealing with dialup, disconnects, and my computer crashing every hour but... :-\

[@vergilmontiero2558]

I agree. Being born in 1990, I feel the same way.

[@chewy10000]

Your comment really struck a chord with me. I was growing up as a small child in the late 90s/early 2000s, and I always viewed the era as a paradise lost. In retrospect, I feel as though the world was heading for a golden age, then it was stopped by the powers that be, that may or may not be true, but it's the feeling I get when I look back on this era

[@delrachdubal]

@@chewy10000 With all of my research, it tends to lean toward this unfortunately. It's horrible :(

[@saramations]

12:30 ...oh...oh... *oh*

[@AckzaTV]

the idea of a private sound garden used to confuse me as a child

[@XxLIVRAxX]

"Live concert Webcast" streaming during the Y2K's was not great but man it felt like the future and it was.

[@Dewaynesite1]

If only I knew about Amazon in 2001. I was 11 🤦😫😭😭😭

[@vergilmontiero2558]

I know the feeling, I was 11 too. I knew about amazon, but like most children didn't pay it much mind seeing it as "adult stuff".

[@TheLeah2344]

When Amazon was just selling books.

[@kennyalwaysdies1]

who else is going to these websites to see if they still exist?

[@plateshutoverlock]

I would be very careful. Some of those domains were likely bought up by people who are now pushing malware and other such material. I wouldn't go to those sites with anything but a VM running a 'disposable' installation of whatever OS of choice.

[@judilynn9569]

I'm not because I remember when they existed and when they folded.

[@aaadj2744]

Either some of them are no longer exist and some are still exist but have been overhaul and redesign like Amazon, for example

[@teampowerstilts3929]

This is being repeated as we speak with the block chain bubble.. hasn’t popped yet. So one day this comment will look like I’m a genius 😂

[@plateshutoverlock]

The dot-com era was hawking services of varying quality and real world use. The current crypto-craze is Tulip Mania all over again but without the tulips, and it makes the dot-com era look like a class act in comparison.

[@toonguy1]

Holy shit I remember lycos

[@joshymcdaniel9233]

Crazy thing in 20 years ppl will be watching these on AI robots on their begging stage’ I really think tech background will be key in the future’ Everything will require programmers etc I also think early investors on AI start ups/ stock are going to be the next “Amazon”

[@Dewaynesite1]

Now fast forward to 2020 online sales during the "Great Lockdown" saw a major boom. 🌋

[@SalmonFume]

Wow. Just wow.

[@Vulcanized]

3:38 This is BiS Tier 6 marketing

[@christypowell.]

the serpent rebranded

[@courageunitycompassi]

Newcom’s ad is ominous.

[@jeromedavis8575]

Subbed!

[@strawberrylemonadelioness]

Surprised Amazon managed to survive when a lot of these sadly went under with the bubble

[@I_Stern]

Amazon is not only for online shopping. Amazon Web Services is the worlds biggest cloud computing provider. If u put all big cloud providers together, AWS is still six times bigger. Imagine. 🙂

[@markh1142]

they never made a proft either back then

[@vergilmontiero2558]

11:40, if that wasn't foreshadowing

[@Kris.G]

If I had the option to become younger but forget the PC bonanza of the 90's, I wouldn't do it.

[@chewy10000]

13:30 Is this an actual cover of the song? If so, I'd be very grateful is someone could tell me by what band

[@delrachdubal]

I wish I knew, it is an awesome version of the song. The Copyright is around 1999 for the commercial but I have no idea who.

[@karlhungus5554]

All I could find was that it was "a group of female studio singers." *Lotus's "Superman" advertising campaign for R5 (the 1999 version of its Notes and Domino product lines) uses a remake by a group of female studio singers of the Clique song "Superman" (already loaded with Gen-X cred thanks to R.E.M’s cover on their 1986 album "Life’s Rich Pageant"). "I am, I am Superman and I can do anything" the singers croon, while letterboxed in bold yellow the camera finds images of individuals in crowds and cubes all over the world holding up different hand-lettered signs reading "I am." Titles dissolve smoothly in and out along the bottom of the screen: "I am ready"; "I am connected"; "I am Superman."* Another resource that claimed to be peripherally connected to the advertisement stated the song was created specifically for the commercial and that no releasable version of the song was ever created. Not terribly helpful, I realize, but I figured I'd share what I found. Like you, there were many others looking for information about the group.

[@RileyFreeman_]

Were there adverts that were talking about how bad the internet is in the 90’s?, like to scare people from going on the internet

[@julloa]

You can buy the domain snowball.com for only $400K.

[@_MaxHeadroom_]

The one at 1:00 really is pretty damn funny 😄

[@musicguy20]

I don’t care what anyone says, the internet is just a lil extension of the telephone and not a giant leap like everyone says.

[@9852323]

Except it’s one big multi way phone call.

[@DidYouFallOutofaCoconutTree]

the 90's sure had some weird and random website names

[@ed9492]

$1,999 in 1999 would be $3,404.25 in 2022.

[@AckzaTV]

wow all those 23 year old websites look so much nicer and simple today, they peaked. a few could just use better background colors etc but they really looked like a collectioj of nfts lol we should have nfts of old windows 3.1 and mac icons etc

[@jimmyperez8792]

I seriously wonder what it would be like if coronavirus hit in the late 90s. It seems like it was possible even then to work and go to school from home.