In this article, we discuss 5 of the most valuable internet companies today versus in 2000. If you want to check out some more of the most valuable internet companies today versus 2000, go directly to 10 Most Valuable Internet Companies in 2000 vs. Today.
#5 ByteDance
Market Capitalization as of October 7: $300 billion
ByteDance is the leader in short video in China with Douyin. ByteDance is also one of the leaders in news in the country with Toutiao. Internationally, ByteDance also owns TikTok, which is the leader in short video outside of China.
Given how addictive Douyin has been inside China and TikTok has been outside of China, ByteDance is one of the most valuable internet companies today with an estimated market cap of $300 billion. Although ByteDance isn’t a public company, the tech giant offered to buy back as much as $3 billion of its shares at that valuation according to Bloomberg in September.
Compared to ByteDance’s $300 billion, the fifth most valuable internet company back in 2000 was Lycos with a valuation of around $11.8 billion. Lycos was a web search engine and web portal that was spun out of Carnegie Mellon University.
#4 Tencent
Market Capitalization as of October 7: $326.49 billion
Tencent is another Chinese internet giant given its ownership of the popular app WeChat, which is an instant messaging, social media, and payments super app. Tencent is also a leader in games both inside China and outside of China.
Given the over billion people who use WeChat, Tencent is worth $326.49 billion as of October 7.
In 2000, the fourth most valuable internet company was online auction leader Ebay with a valuation of around $17.6 billion. Although Ebay is still around today, it has been eclipsed by Amazon in e-commerce as many users want to buy instantly rather than wait.
#3 Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)
Market Capitalization as of October 7: $360.58 billion
Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) is an internet giant given its ownership of the popular apps Facebook, Instagram, and Whatsapp.
Although it was worth substantially more before the market decline, Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) is still nevertheless the third most valuable internet company with a market capitalization of $360.58 billion as of October 7.
In addition to its leading social media apps, Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) is also investing heavily in the metaverse, which CEO Mark Zuckerberg expects to be a huge market one day.
Of the 895 hedge funds in our database, 184 were long Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) at the end of Q2 2022.
Back in 2000, the third most valuable internet company was Infospace with a market cap of around $21.1 billion. Infospace was a company that offered private label search, online directories, and metadata feeds.
#2 Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)
Market Capitalization as of October 7: $1,185.68 billion
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) is a leader in e-commerce and cloud computing. Given how big the e-commerce market is, and how fast the cloud computing market is still growing, Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) is valued at $1,185.68 billion as of October 7, making it the second most valuable internet company in the world. 252 hedge funds we track were long Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) at the end of the second quarter with Fisher Asset Management owning over 48.6 million shares.
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) was also the second most valuable company in 2000, although at a much lower valuation. Back in 2000, the company was only worth $25.5 billion and did not offer cloud computing to its customers.
#1 Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)
Market Capitalization as of October 7: $1,295.23 billion
Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) is a leader in search given google.com, and also a leader in online videos given youtube.com. Given how profitable the search market and youtube has been, Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) is worth $1,295.23 billion as of October 7. Given its valuation, Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) is the most valuable internet company today. 153 hedge funds were long Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) at the end of Q2 2022. Among them, TCI Fund Management owned almost 2.5 million shares.
Back in 2000, the most valuable internet company in the world was Yahoo with a market valuation of $94.2 billion. Yahoo was a leading web portal.
You can also take a look at 10 Biggest Industries In the US and 25 Most Famous People in the World.
