1995: 16 Million People on the Web
In June 1995, there were 23,500 websites. In December 1995, only 16 million people were using the web. Amazon launched. eBay and Craigslist too. Match “dot com” and MSN (then called “The Microsoft Network” that was embedded into Windows95 and its “active desktop”).

In January 1995, I was the principle copywriter and concepter for QVC dot com, which was (by my reckoning) Barry Diller’s first website ever.
And it exploded year-over-year from there. Peaking in 1999–2000 with the Super Bowl commercials, etc. And then the bubble burst in late 2000 / early 2001. And then 9/11 happened.
Slowly, a recovery began to trickle up. MySpace launched in 2003 promising “personal websites” for anybody and launching the green shoots of social media. YouTube launched in 2005 and started taking off in 2006–07 — and the term “viral video” entered our vocabulary.

In the summer of 2005, the growth curve of US households with broadband crossed paths with the declining number of dial-up homes.
In 2007, the Facebook opened its membership to everybody. And in 2008, Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone. And everything changed again.

