Browsers, IM clients, P2P, and e-commerce pioneers—what they built, and why they ended.

• AOL Instant Messenger

  ✨ Fate: other Pre-dated texting, couldn't outlast smartphones

  1997–2017 🏷️ Software & Internet

• Jet (retail)

  🤝 Fate: acquired Walmart's $3.3B Amazon killer, shut down 4 years later

  2015–2020 🏷️ Software & Internet

• Napster (original)

  💥 Fate: bankruptcy Made MP3 sharing mainstream, killed by lawsuits

  1999–2001 🏷️ Software & Internet

• Netscape

  🤝 Fate: acquired Won the browser wars, then lost to Internet Explorer

  1994–2008 🏷️ Software & Internet

• Orkut

  ✨ Fate: other Google’s early social network that ruled Brazil and India before shutting down in 2014.

  2004–2014 🏷️ Software & Internet

• Pets.com

  📉 Fate: liquidated Spent $300M on sock puppet ads, lasted 268 days

  1998–2000 🏷️ Software & Internet

• Yahoo! Messenger

  ✨ Fate: other The buzzy IM with Audibles, webcam chat, and the infamous window-shaking “Buzz.”

  1998–2018 🏷️ Software & Internet