The Atlantic

The Not-Com Bubble Is Popping

The unicorn massacre unfolding today is exactly the opposite of what happened in 2000.
Source: Brendan McDermid / Reuters

It is easy to look at today’s crop of sinking IPOs—like Uber, Lyft, and Peloton—or scuttled public offerings, like WeWork, and see an eerie resemblance to the dot-com bubble that popped in 2000.

  • Both then and now, consumer-tech companies spent lavishly on advertising and struggled to find a path to profit.

  • Both then and now, companies that bragged about their ability to change the world admitted suddenly that they were running out of money.

  • Both then and now, the valuations of once-heralded tech enterprises were halved in a matter of weeks.

  • Both and , there

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