# Which pre-2000 Internet companies are still around and successful? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 17, 2015, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-pre-2000-internet-companies-are-still-around-and-successful/740670 "2015-12-17T07:37:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Wolverine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ba9def/32.png) [@Wolverine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wolverine)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2015, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-pre-2000-internet-companies-are-still-around-and-successful/740670/1 "2015-12-17T07:37:11Z")
Obviously Google, Amazon, eBay, and Yahoo are still around and succesful. But how many others? 1. The company started on the Internet (sorry ESPN’s successful internet websites - RIP Grantland) 2. The company started before the 2000 [Dot-Com bubble](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dot-com_bubble) crash “Succesful” is left up to you. I’ll throw IGN and Penny Arcade out there as other examples. They are still some of the biggest movers in their respective markets. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2015, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-pre-2000-internet-companies-are-still-around-and-successful/740670/2 "2015-12-17T07:49:47Z")
Priceline, Expedia, Netflix, Salesforce, Shutterfly, Pandora, WebMD, VeriSign And in 2000, there was Baidu and Tripadvisor Not counting all the ones swallowed up by Yahoo, etc. ---
**Author:** ![coremelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2015, 8:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-pre-2000-internet-companies-are-still-around-and-successful/740670/3 "2015-12-17T08:30:48Z")
[Lastminute.com](http://Lastminute.com) started in 1998 and is still around and doing well. [Slashdot.org](http://Slashdot.org) is still around, started in 1997. [Fark.com](http://Fark.com) 1997, still around. [Somethingawful.com](http://Somethingawful.com) 1999, still around. A “friend” tells me that some of the largest porn sites have been in existence since 1999/2000. Edit to add, I’d also add Valve, started in 1996 as a games company but now controls Steam, the most successful games market on windows. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2015, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-pre-2000-internet-companies-are-still-around-and-successful/740670/4 "2015-12-17T17:04:19Z")
> [@Reply](#): > > Priceline, Expedia, Netflix, Salesforce, Shutterfly, Pandora, WebMD, VeriSign \*\*Priceline \*\*crashed with the rest of them, the stock plummeting to less than $1, and they had payed Capt Kirk to do their commercials mostly in stock. However he was smart and held onto it and eventually Priceline bounced back to over $400/share and made Shatner almost nine-figures rich… ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2015, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-pre-2000-internet-companies-are-still-around-and-successful/740670/5 "2015-12-17T18:56:43Z")
[Monster.com](http://Monster.com) and [Careerbuilder.com](http://Careerbuilder.com) date from 1999 and 1995 respectively. ---
**Author:** ![fiddlesticks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddlesticks/32/18129_2.png) [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2015, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-pre-2000-internet-companies-are-still-around-and-successful/740670/6 "2015-12-17T22:52:30Z")
[LiveJournal.com](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LiveJournal) is still around (it barely gets in under the wire, starting in April 1999). The English-speaking blog world has mostly departed to tumblr but it is still apparently has a big user presence in Russia (and that’s where the developers are these days). But unless you deleted your embarrassing teenage LJ from the early Bush 43 days, it’s still there online where you left it. ---
**Author:** ![usedtobe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ec9cab/32.png) [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2015, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-pre-2000-internet-companies-are-still-around-and-successful/740670/7 "2015-12-18T07:31:32Z")
[Dice.com](http://Dice.com) started by running ads in the Sunday papers. Then was a BBS Still going. ---
**Author:** ![Hermitian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hermitian/32/470_2.png) [@Hermitian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hermitian)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2015, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-pre-2000-internet-companies-are-still-around-and-successful/740670/8 "2015-12-18T17:56:50Z")
> [@Wolverine](#): > > “Succesful” is left up to you. Yea, I don’t know if I would call Yahoo still successful. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2015, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-pre-2000-internet-companies-are-still-around-and-successful/740670/9 "2015-12-18T18:20:34Z")
[Match.com](http://Match.com) launched in 1995. [Lycos.com](http://Lycos.com) launched in 1994 (I have a soft spot for that one since its chat rooms were my first Internet “home”) and is still around. I’m not sure it’s still “successful” since it sold for $12 billion in 2000 and is now worth less than $100 million, but it’s still functioning. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2015, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-pre-2000-internet-companies-are-still-around-and-successful/740670/10 "2015-12-18T19:06:08Z")
AOL still exists though it is now a media company rather than an ISP and Verizon owns it. My wife still has an AOL email address. Don’t know how “successful” you’d call it but as Hermitian pointed out calling Yahoo successful is also a stretch. EarthLink, believe it or not, is not only still around **but still offers dial-up service**. I have no idea how this is possible. ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2015, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-pre-2000-internet-companies-are-still-around-and-successful/740670/11 "2015-12-18T19:26:27Z")
Craigslist started in 1996 on the web, and incorporated in 1999. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2015, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-pre-2000-internet-companies-are-still-around-and-successful/740670/12 "2015-12-18T21:03:26Z")
[InfoSpace](http://infospace.com/), an early purveyor of search engines since 1996, seems to still be around, as is their composite mash-up search engine [Dogpile](http://www.dogpile.com/). What it does is search all the other major search engines to give you a composite of listings from all of them. ---
**Author:** ![coremelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2015, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-pre-2000-internet-companies-are-still-around-and-successful/740670/13 "2015-12-18T21:40:26Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > Don’t know how “successful” you’d call it but as Hermitian pointed out calling Yahoo successful is also a stretch. Yahoo still has 9000 employees and they made 7 billion by buying 40 percent of Ali Baba early on then selling it. They still own 20 percent of Ali Baba and have $61 billion in assets. By most people’s expectations thats a successful company. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2015, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-pre-2000-internet-companies-are-still-around-and-successful/740670/14 "2015-12-18T22:37:36Z")
> [@coremelt](#): > > Yahoo still has 9000 employees and they made 7 billion by buying 40 percent of Ali Baba early on then selling it. They still own 20 percent of Ali Baba and have $61 billion in assets. By most people’s expectations thats a successful company. They’ve had their rough spots too though, and share prices are about a third of their pre-bubble peak. But yes, as a business it’s hard to call it a failure and their web/news portal is still very popular. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2015, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-pre-2000-internet-companies-are-still-around-and-successful/740670/15 "2015-12-18T23:43:22Z")
I was surprised to find out Tucows (1993) is still around. They moved out of [download.cnet.com](http://download.cnet.com)’s territory, and are now best known for offering the budget cell phone provider Ting. ---
**Author:** ![Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harvey_The_Heavy)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2015, 9:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-pre-2000-internet-companies-are-still-around-and-successful/740670/16 "2015-12-19T09:09:37Z")
[ZomboCom](http://zombo.com) has been going strong since 1999. ---
**Author:** ![UncleFred](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f0a364/32.png) [@UncleFred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleFred)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2015, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-pre-2000-internet-companies-are-still-around-and-successful/740670/17 "2015-12-19T18:31:55Z")
A bit of a hijack but I was pleased to find “The World” is still in business; "The World ([www.TheWorld.com](http://www.TheWorld.com)) operated by Software Tool & Die is an Internet service provider headquartered in Boston, MA. Since 1989, we were the first public dialup Internet Service Provider (ISP) on the planet. And we’re still proud to be the best. " That’s DIALUP and still going… ---
**Author:** ![DorkVader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/73ab20/32.png) [@DorkVader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DorkVader)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2015, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-pre-2000-internet-companies-are-still-around-and-successful/740670/18 "2015-12-20T20:02:35Z")
[QUOTE=UncleFred] Software Tool & Die [/QUOTE] That is also a Most Awesome™ company name. ---
**Author:** ![leahcim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b4bc9f/32.png) [@leahcim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leahcim)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2015, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-pre-2000-internet-companies-are-still-around-and-successful/740670/19 "2015-12-20T20:32:02Z")
Akamai is still around and doing quite well. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2015, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-pre-2000-internet-companies-are-still-around-and-successful/740670/20 "2015-12-20T20:41:39Z")
The Straight Dope Message Board is pre 2000 and is successful “enough” via ad sales to keep going. [It’s the 2117th most popular website in the USA!](http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/straightdope.com) [Interestingly we also own the Star of Siam restaurant website](http://starofsiamchicago.com/) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-pre-2000-internet-companies-are-still-around-and-successful/740670.md?page=2)