Can Q-Comm Deliver Returns to Shareholders?

The hype cycle around quick commerce is maturing into a 'grind cycle'. This has implications for investors

- Abhishek Mukherjee

Summer of 1997. The dotcom boom was in full swing on Wall Street. Venture capital firms, investment banks and retail investors were in a mad scramble to get their hands on anything with a '.​com' attached to its name.

Every company seemed to be a trailblazing hero which was about to dislodge the outdated, crusty incumbents and rewrite history. Every founder was a Napoleon, Guevara and Rockefeller rolled into one.

On 15 May that year, a small, Seattle-based startup made its market debut.

Founded by a nerdy Wall Street executive with a disarmingly hearty laughter, the three-year-old company had never made a dollar in profit. Its topline growth was impressive, but equally impressive was its growing list of competitors, including giants of corporate America which were mounting a fervent challenge to protect their kingdom. Whatever might be the startup's financial and operational predicament, its vision was audaciously ambitious-to become the "Earth's Biggest Bookstore".

The online bookseller was named Amazon.​com. The founder was a gentleman called Jeffrey Preston Bezos.

Amazon.​com had a stellar start to its market innings, soaring 30% over its IPO price on the very first day, followed by a continuous uptrend in tandem with the broader market. But it soon ran into the corporate equivalent of a Category 5 hurricane.

The dotcom mania imploded in spectacular fashion in 2000, striking the fear of God into both Wall Street and Main Street. The Nasdaq index plunged about 80% during the bubble burst period.

Many hyped internet sensations vanished in a puff of smoke, including Amazon-backed Pets.​com, which shut shop barely nine months after completing its IPO.

Amazon's stock itself shed a spine-chilling 90% of its value, between 2000 and the end of 2001.

Analysts began raising doubts over Amazon's ability to survive. Its lack of profitability was like a huge bull's eye painted on the back of the company.