Popular on s4story
- Ironside HR Named Fastest-Growing Staffing Firm for Second Year
- Pyro Marketing Opens New Digital Marketing Company to Power Growth for Fitness and Ecommerce Brands
- "Menace: An Agent Dean Cold Novel" by Ray Keating Lands Soon!
- Assent Expands Executive Team to Accelerate Global Growth & Innovation
- 8-Year-Old Chef with Down Syndrome Shares Favorite Recipes in Uplifting New Cookbook
- Curtis Sergeant's Book The Only One Continues to Equip Christians to Live Fully in by and for God
- SlickCashLoan Launches Free Loan Calculator to Help You Plan Monthly Payments
- FINAL CALL! Submit Your Book for the 2025 Grateful American Book Prize
- Josh & Heidi Share Upcoming "Spreading the Good BUZZ" Podcast Guests, Select Top Five Elopement Locations as Their Instagram Presence Grows Globally
- The World's Largest Green Economic Revolution Emerges as Nature, Tech, and Finance Converge
Timeline of Events that Made the Spectacular Netscape IPO Possible
S For Story/10667872
NEW YORK - s4story -- We're coming up on the 30th anniversary of the Netscape IPO, which, as everyone knows, was the launch of the Internet economy and ecosystem we live in today.
Here are some of the key, sometimes surprising and off-radar, events that made the IPO's spectacular "overnight success" possible.
The Tech Nerd Days
May 1990 - Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Cailliau write a proposal to develop something called the World Wide Web for their employer, CERN.
August 6, 1991 - After Cailliau successfully lobbies CERN to formally declare the code and concept behind the Web public domain, Tim Berners-Lee makes the Web available to the public.
November 1992 - University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign undergraduate Marc Andreessen, working at the school's National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NSCA), asks co-worker Eric Bina if he'd ever seen the Web. He hadn't. Mutual inspiration leads them to develop a point-and-click graphic user interface for it.
January 23, 1993 - Andreessen and Bina launch an "alpha/best version 0.5" of Mosaic.
Faint Rumbles
March 1993 - After a successful debut at the January 2, 1993, Macworld conference, the first issue of Wired Magazine hits the newsstands. The Web is not mentioned, but web addresses appear on some of the pages.
More on S For Story
April 21, 1993 - Tech reporter John Markoff writes an article about Mosaic for the New York Times.
The Web Gets Down to Business
January 1994 - Jim Clark sees a demo of the Mosaic browser and immediately reaches out to Andreessen. The two meet and decide to go into business together.
January 1994 - Jerry Yang and David Filo begin work on "Jerry and David's Guide to the World Wide Web," a hand-built directory of websites. (They don't incorporate the name "Yahoo" until March 2, 1995.)
April 1994 - Wired Magazine approves a proposal by Andrew Anker to start an ad-supported online publication on the Web called HotWired.com
April 4, 1994 - Mosaic Communications (later renamed Netscape) is formed.
June 11, 1994 - Ken McCarthy of E-Media.com gathers Internet commercialization pioneers, including Mark Graham, who helped put AOL on the Internet, and Marc Fleischman, the world's first full-time web consultant and web site developer, for a private meeting at 3220 Sacramento, the San Francisco tech incubator where Apple worked on touchscreen technology.
The topic: "How to Make the Web Pay for Itself." McCarthy introduces the idea that becomes the foundation of digital advertising: put "little squares" on web pages that take people to ad pages and calculate the ratio of page views to clicks, later known as the clickthrough rate. A non-industry guest, Rick Boyce, a media buyer for Hal Riney & Partners, takes notes.
More on S For Story
July 5, 1994 - Jeff Bezos founds Amazon to sell books online. Amazon doesn't expand beyond selling books until 1998 and doesn't show its first annual profit until 2003.
October 27, 1994 - Rick Boyce, who left Hal Riney & Partners to join Hotwired as sales director a few weeks after attending the June 11 meeting at 3220 Sacramento, leads the team that sells the first banner ad. The $790 billion a year global digital advertising industry — the first activity that generates meaningful profits on the Web — is born.
November 5, 1994 - In San Francisco, McCarthy hosts the first large-scale conference ever dedicated to the idea that the Web could be a self-supporting commercial medium.
23-year-old Marc Andreessen is the keynote speaker. His presentation was video recorded in full and is the only extended documentation of Andreessen from this era.
August 9, 1995 - Netscape launches its IPO. The initial offering price is $28, but demand for shares is so ferocious that the first sale goes off at $71. The high of the day was $74.74, and the price closes at $58.25. Wall Street, the news media, and the public at large start to realize that something large is afoot.
More about the Web's critical transformational years can be found in the new book How the Web Won.
Here are some of the key, sometimes surprising and off-radar, events that made the IPO's spectacular "overnight success" possible.
The Tech Nerd Days
May 1990 - Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Cailliau write a proposal to develop something called the World Wide Web for their employer, CERN.
August 6, 1991 - After Cailliau successfully lobbies CERN to formally declare the code and concept behind the Web public domain, Tim Berners-Lee makes the Web available to the public.
November 1992 - University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign undergraduate Marc Andreessen, working at the school's National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NSCA), asks co-worker Eric Bina if he'd ever seen the Web. He hadn't. Mutual inspiration leads them to develop a point-and-click graphic user interface for it.
January 23, 1993 - Andreessen and Bina launch an "alpha/best version 0.5" of Mosaic.
Faint Rumbles
March 1993 - After a successful debut at the January 2, 1993, Macworld conference, the first issue of Wired Magazine hits the newsstands. The Web is not mentioned, but web addresses appear on some of the pages.
More on S For Story
- Artificial Intelligence Surges to the Front of Race for TIME's 2025 Person of the Year
- Children's Book "Bad Secrets" #1 on Amazon -Tackling Child Abuse Through Storytelling
- ZEELOOL Launches 8th Anniversary Eyewear Collection for Infinite Style
- Lucrumia Crypto Exchange Introduces Multi-Ecosystem Platform with Advanced DeFi Integration
- NASA Agreement for Applications in PV Power Beaming; $5 Million to $20 Million Sales Projection for 2026 and $25 Million to $40 Million for 2027 $ASTI
April 21, 1993 - Tech reporter John Markoff writes an article about Mosaic for the New York Times.
The Web Gets Down to Business
January 1994 - Jim Clark sees a demo of the Mosaic browser and immediately reaches out to Andreessen. The two meet and decide to go into business together.
January 1994 - Jerry Yang and David Filo begin work on "Jerry and David's Guide to the World Wide Web," a hand-built directory of websites. (They don't incorporate the name "Yahoo" until March 2, 1995.)
April 1994 - Wired Magazine approves a proposal by Andrew Anker to start an ad-supported online publication on the Web called HotWired.com
April 4, 1994 - Mosaic Communications (later renamed Netscape) is formed.
June 11, 1994 - Ken McCarthy of E-Media.com gathers Internet commercialization pioneers, including Mark Graham, who helped put AOL on the Internet, and Marc Fleischman, the world's first full-time web consultant and web site developer, for a private meeting at 3220 Sacramento, the San Francisco tech incubator where Apple worked on touchscreen technology.
The topic: "How to Make the Web Pay for Itself." McCarthy introduces the idea that becomes the foundation of digital advertising: put "little squares" on web pages that take people to ad pages and calculate the ratio of page views to clicks, later known as the clickthrough rate. A non-industry guest, Rick Boyce, a media buyer for Hal Riney & Partners, takes notes.
More on S For Story
- Juego Studios Rises as Global Leader in Full-Cycle Game Development, Design, & Outsourcing
- CELOXFI Launches Revolutionary Web3 Crypto Asset Exchange with AI-Powered Trading Features
- Season Ticket Squeeze: Premier League Shifts to Match Tickets and Memberships for Extra Revenue
- The Citizens Commission on Human Rights has Hosted Over 1,000 Events Educating Citizens on Important
- Jaimye Lynn: Author of Emotionally-Rich Stories That Leave a Lasting Impact
July 5, 1994 - Jeff Bezos founds Amazon to sell books online. Amazon doesn't expand beyond selling books until 1998 and doesn't show its first annual profit until 2003.
October 27, 1994 - Rick Boyce, who left Hal Riney & Partners to join Hotwired as sales director a few weeks after attending the June 11 meeting at 3220 Sacramento, leads the team that sells the first banner ad. The $790 billion a year global digital advertising industry — the first activity that generates meaningful profits on the Web — is born.
November 5, 1994 - In San Francisco, McCarthy hosts the first large-scale conference ever dedicated to the idea that the Web could be a self-supporting commercial medium.
23-year-old Marc Andreessen is the keynote speaker. His presentation was video recorded in full and is the only extended documentation of Andreessen from this era.
August 9, 1995 - Netscape launches its IPO. The initial offering price is $28, but demand for shares is so ferocious that the first sale goes off at $71. The high of the day was $74.74, and the price closes at $58.25. Wall Street, the news media, and the public at large start to realize that something large is afoot.
More about the Web's critical transformational years can be found in the new book How the Web Won.
Source: Ken McCarthy
0 Comments
Latest on S For Story
- For Bad Poetry Day: Treat yourself to The Motherlode of Great Bad Poems & Potential Song Lyrics, too
- Quality Homes & Luxury Lifestyle at Heritage at South Brunswick!
- IW$ Press Signs "The King of Content" for First-Ever Traditional Publishing Deal
- New Frontier Aerospace and Air Force Institute of Technology Sign CRADA to Advance Hypersonic VTOL Aircraft
- Say Goodbye to Summer! Easing the Mental Health Transition Back to School
- History Matters: Book Recommendations for August
- GoodNewz4U Comics Unveils Powerful New Issue: Joshua & Judges
- Scott Burton Releases Chaos: A Study of Distance
- $750 Million Projected Market; NRx Pharmaceuticals, Inc files Citizens Petition to FDA Seeking Removal of Benzethonium Chloride from Ketamine Products
- Award-Winning Australian Author Reveals 3 Costly Mistakes Many Single Women Make
- New Book Empowers Fathers to Lead with Faith and Purpose in a Challenging World
- TUHLULA DA VIRGO – The Rise of a Star
- SolMining announces $88 million in funding
- Top Edu-Tainment IP, Badanamu, enters children's mental health space, launching Healthy Kids Music Network
- Costa Oil Partners with Rick Ware Racing for NASCAR Cup Series Debut at Iowa Speedway
- DARA Abrams NYC Stories Art Experience at One Art Space
- Buildout Unveils Rethink+: Revolutionizing Commercial Real Estate Prospecting with Seamless CRM Integration
- purelyIV Launches Niagen® IV Therapy – A Breakthrough in NAD+ Cellular Wellness
- James Langston Releases His 30th Book — "Will God Forgive Me?"
- Indies United is pleased to present our August 2025 book releases