If asked for a definition of what exactly constitutes a Dot Com company, it would be difficult to arrive at a satisfactory conclusion. Derived from the increasingly popular extension to the website name, namely “.com”, a dot com company, loosely defined can be said to be one that derives its revenues from business on the net, or over the net or through the net. This would put most of the leading companies in the world into this league, as most of them do derive some of their revenues from commerce over the web, or can at least attribute a percentage of sales to those induced by web based advertising. Yet few of them are today called so, nor are all willing to be so labeled, as is evident from the statement made by Lou Gestetner, who refutes the claim of IBM being one, despite generating almost $20 billion, or 25% of IBM’s revenue from sales, over and related to the net.
Defining dot com's more specifically, we could place them as those companies that derive the major part of their revenues from web related activities. This could either be through portals, ISPs, or plain selling over the web, as do Webvan, Amazon and the like. In the past few years, the craze of dot com's has come to affect the US psyche and its economy. It has triggered not only entirely new phrases and terminology, but also, akin to the Gold Rush of the past century, attracted the best and the most enterprising people to chance their future on a new venture.
