USA TODAY: Blogs. 99-cent music downloads. Podcasts. Phoning home via the Internet. Online social networking. It’s the golden age of the Internet.
But you wouldn’t know it if you’ve just been watching Internet stocks. Outside of Google and a few other choice names, it’s hard to find an Internet company that gets investors’ juices flowing — let alone gets them to pull out their wallets. From a technological standpoint, the Internet has lived up to and even surpassed its wildest expectations. But investment-wise, the recent results have been a disappointment at best.
That’s completely opposite from six years ago, when dot-com stocks were exciting, but the companies themselves were largely duds. Today’s environment says as much about the Internet itself as about the harsh lessons investors have learned. In 2000, investors were willing to buy an Internet stock on the hopes the company, some day, might have a breakthrough product — or any product at all — and make money. That was before the bubble popped. Now investors need to see real products, real cash flow and real earnings before they’ll make a move. Internet stocks have become the ultimate “show me” plays.