On its first day of trading, theglobe.com's stock rose more than 600 percent, a record for a first day. The company began as a project of two Cornell University students who saw the web as a place to meet people. It offered free personal home pages, chat rooms, and forums, years before social networks became a business. By late 1998 it had millions of members and a New York headquarters. Its offering that November became a defining moment of the dot-com era.

Two Cornell Students

Stephan Paternot and Todd Krizelman started the company while they were students at Cornell. The bet was that online communities would draw huge audiences, and that advertisers would pay to reach them. theglobe.com grew by giving users tools to publish and connect. It also bought other community and gaming sites. Its members were young, and many were building their first web page.

A Symbol of Excess

theglobe.com priced its offering at $9 a share on November 13, 1998. That record first-day jump made it a symbol of the era's excess. Advertising revenue failed to keep up with costs, and the stock collapsed in 2000 and 2001. In the years that followed, the company sold or closed most of its businesses. Its founders moved on to other ventures.

Cover: Philosophers Discussing the Terrestrial Globe, Perino del Vaga. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a terrestrial globe (theglobe).