The .com bubble was a large-scale financial crisis in the late 1990s in the United States, especially California. As internet companies grew rapidly in the late 1990s, fueled by investor excitement, stock prices rose dramatically. However, by early 2000 many internet companies collapsed as their business models were unsustainable, causing stock prices to plummet and resulting in major losses for investors. While some internet companies failed, others like Amazon and eBay survived and grew to become major companies. Similar tech bubbles also occurred in other countries like Japan, though the US .com bubble was the largest.