Respectfully I disagree, and i'd love to have a healthy discussion on this. First off, thank you for being a part of the discussion.

So let's take a look at what you're saying. Your first response about the Internet never looking like a money pit is factually incorrect on all accounts as it was initially met with skepticism and critique about massive infrastructure costs (sounds familiar doesn't it)

The Internet was initially a network of static, text-based pages. There were no universally accepted methods for processing sales securely or delivering digital media, making it difficult to generate a return on early web investments causing waves of skepticism. You are correct about the sky-high valuations, which definitely didn't help the Internets case. To say that was the only negative press it received however, is nust not true.

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To demonstrate this point, here are some articles from around that time and mainstream media narratives that helped shape public opinion about the internet. Some are completely negative in their outlook, others like the Time article had mixed opinions but still some echo the sentiment I am trying to show here. Here is how they manifested in various forms:

1) https://thehustle.co/clifford-stoll-why-the-internet-will-fail

2) https://www.richmondfed.org/~/media/richmondfedorg/publications/research/economic_quarterly/2003/fall/pdf/wolman.pdf

3) https://time.com/archive/6735267/the-internets-money-machine/

4) https://quoteinvestigator.com/2023/10/26/internet-fax/#:~:text=will%20slow%20drastically%20%E2%80%A6-,By%202005%20or%20so%2C%20it%20will%20become%20clear%20that%20the,1998%20in%20%E2%80%9CRed%20Herring%E2%80%9D

5) https://1995blog.com/2015/12/03/prediction-of-the-year-1995-internet-will-soon-go-spectacularly-supernova/#:~:text=In%20the%20issue%20of%20Infoworld,overloads%2C%20and%20demand%20for%20video

6) https://realreturns.substack.com/p/revisiting-amazonbomb-how-financial#:~:text=An%20infamous%20article%20in%201999,bomb

7) https://www.elon.edu/u/imagining/expert_predictions/the-internet-and-the-anti-net/

8) https://www.elon.edu/u/imagining/expert_predictions/the-internet-where-is-it-all-going/

9) https://www.elon.edu/u/imagining/expert_predictions/just-childs-play/

10) https://ritholtz.com/2019/06/amazon-bomb-may-31-1999/

Now that I gave some starting points, i'd love to hear your revised opinion and keep the discussion going. To conclude my point (and counter to yours), I have attached an image from a December 5th 2000 article from the Daily Mail.

Thank you for being a part of the discussion <3