Word Spy - dot com

adj. Describes a company that runs its business on and derives its revenues from the Internet.

Example Citation:

"You can't turn on the television, listen to the radio, or drive down the highway without being bombarded by advertisements for 'dot com' companies."
—Steven Syre and Charles Stein, "Enjoy ads for 'dot com' till the shakeout," The Boston Globe, October 7, 1999

Notes:

This word also makes appearances around the world disguised as dot-com, dot.com, and dotcom. The earliest use I can find for any of these variations in the noun version is a table caption in the following citation:

"According to an analysis of 14,726 companies registered with Internet Info of Falls Church, Virginia, as of April 1994, the Big Apple led the country in commercial firms connected to the Internet. If you take the California cities of San Jose, San Francisco, Santa Clara, Sunnyvale and Palo Alto together, however, Silicon Valley leads by a longshot.
Where Are the dot.COMs?
Registered City / State Companies 
    1 New York NY            291 
    2 San Jose CA            260 
    3 San Francisco CA       218 
    4 Boulder CO             194 
    5 Santa Clara CA         175 
    6 Cambridge MA           59 
    7 Sunnyvale CA           157 
    8 Palo Alto CA           155 
    9 San Diego CA           154 
   10 Mountain View CA       143
—"Who's Wired — How U.S. Cities Stack Up," Industries In Transition," July, 1994

Categories:

Companies
E-commerce

Posted on October 13, 1999
Updated on November 27, 2001