Skip to main content

tv   The Nineties  CNN  August 13, 2017 9:00pm-10:00pm PDT

9:00 pm
world war or the cold war, we have an enemy. and the enemy are the terrorists who do not believe in what we do, open societies and freedom. they're out to kill plain, innocent people. we have to understand -- >> it is a war. >> -- that this is a sustained effort. in the nineties, we're going to revolutionize human communication. using these desk top computers. >> you've got mail. >> what is the worldwide web. >> in the world of computers, it's kill or be killed. >> please welcome bill gates. >> do you agree or disagree that you are a monopoly? >> check out windows 95. >> this is i mac. >> it's a technological revolution that's changing every way we do everything. from making friends to falling in love. >> when the new millennium arrives so will a technological
9:01 pm
tidal wave. ♪ you just bought your first personal computer, you're unpacking it and then comes the moment of truth. if you have just bought your first personal computer, this show is for you.
9:02 pm
>> computers in 1990 were a disconnected device, right? it was a brick. and it let you do amazing things you have never been able to do before, but it was essentially a productivity tool. >> now that we have all these very powerful tools, we're still islands. we're still not really connecting these people using these powerful tools together. >> apple was in a period of decline. steve jobs quit in a type of temper tantrum in 1985 and went off and started a company called next. after he left, there was a sequence of pretty boring, unimaginative corporate leadership that followed him. >> why did you leave apple? >> i was asked to leave. i was asked to leave apple. i was planning on spend the rest of my life there. but didn't work out that way. >> steve jobs was a genius, but one of the reasons he got moved out of his job is because he was spending huge amounts of money on projects that, for the most
9:03 pm
part, never reached the market. and apple had a crisis of confidence. >> at a time when major computer corporations like apple are laying off 10% of their workforce, microsoft is the big exception in the computer industry. >> people didn't get how much value there was, but the operating system could be the most valuable piece of real estate in the computing business with something not understood by anybody not in the computer industry. apart from bill gates. >> today we're introducing microsoft windows version 3. >> bill gates, part thomas edison, part henry ford, part calledon callfield from catcher
9:04 pm
in the rye. at 19 he dropped out of harvard to design computer software with his friend paul allen. they came up with a system that operates 90% of the personal computers today. >> microsoft was making a lot of money then. they were charging $400 for, say, a word processing package that really was costing them about 50 cents to print on floppies. >> hard working, modest, easy going, it would seem to a fault. of course, he does have at least one secret. but we'll fix that. >> is it true you can leap over a chair from a standing position. >> it depends on the size of the chair, but this chair, probably so. >> yes! >> i took a step before i did it. >> that's okay. >> bill gates wasn't just one thing. he was a brilliant guy, great parents, value families, but he was a killer. he basically was a ruthless guy. so was microsoft. >> somebody is confused. somebody is just not thinking. there's no way. >> we'll figure it out. >> you guys never understood the first thing about this.
9:05 pm
>> a lot of people make the analogy that competing with bill gates is like playing hardball. i'd say it's more like a knife fight. >> i have never heard any of these things. you're saying knife fight. that's silliness. it's childish. why be a mouthpiece for that kind of silliness. i'm done. >> can i ask you one more question? >> i don't think so. >> i remember one time interviewing gates and i said, microsoft owns the world right now. you worry about that? he said i worry about that every single night. i go to bed thinking what have i not thought about. >> now it's starting to dial. now i am in. >> it spans the globe like a super highway. it's called internet, the net.
9:06 pm
>> back in 1969 it was a tool of the pentagon. but nowadays just about anyone with a computer and a modem can join in. >> the internet was really dorky, hard to use and extremely nerdy thing. none of your friends would have been on this. just fellow people in tech. >> the internet really was not a huge factor in the early '90s. but netscape changed things. >> they are calling him the next bill gates. 24-year-old mark andreessen helped start a company called netscape. the company's stock went public and wall street went bonkers. so what does netscape produce? that now makes the company millions of dollars? this, the navigator, software which makes it easy for people to connect called the internet. >> microsoft has a long history of feeling threatened by hot new upstarts.
9:07 pm
you could easily argue that bill gates' game plan was world domination. >> these guys can be taken. but the only way we're going to take them is by studying them. know what they know, do what they do, watch them. take every one of their good ideas and make it one of our good ideas. >> microsoft came down and said to netscape, we can be friends or enemies. if we're going to be friends, that's great. you'll get all the advantages of working with microsoft in a lot of ways. you'll be on the home screen of a lot of computers or we can compete. we're going to basically do whatever is required to kill you. >> some people believe you have an appetite for power. you are the embodiment of a button in the 1980s that said i want it all and you want to eat up your competitors. is that unfair? >> it doesn't ring any bells with me. what do president clinton,
9:08 pm
we don't just want to watch games cable gives us. we want all the teams, no matter where we live- with directv nfl sunday ticket. we want falcons in new york. jets in la. bears in new orleans. or buccaneers in a quaint, little new england bed and breakfast. can you please pass the marmalade, charlie? i sure can, crazy pirate. switch to directv and get every game, every sunday with nfl sunday ticket. call 1-800-directv. why should over two hundred years of citi history matter to you? well, because it tells us something powerful about progress: that whether times are good or bad, people and their ideas will continue to move the world forward. as long as they have someone to believe in them. citi financed the transatlantic cable that connected continents. and the panama canal, that made our world a smaller place.
9:09 pm
we backed the marshall plan that helped europe regain its strength. and pioneered the atm, for cash, anytime. for over two centuries we've supported dreams like these, and the people and companies behind them. so why should that matter to you? because, today, we are still helping progress makers turn their ideas into reality. and the next great idea could be yours. at the lexus golden opportunity sales event before it ends. choose from the is turbo, es 350 or nx turbo for $299 a month for 36 months if you lease now. experience amazing at your lexus dealer. we come into this world needi♪ others. then we are told it's braver to go it alone. ♪
9:10 pm
but there is another way to live. ♪ a way that sees the only path to fulfillment- is through others. ♪ if you could book a flight, then add a hotel, or car, or activity in one place and save, where would you go? ♪ expedia gives you the world in your hand, so you can see more of it. ♪ expedia. (vo)just one touch.ith introducing fancy feast creamy delights, with just the right touch of real milk. easily digestible, it makes her favorite entrées even more delightful.
9:11 pm
new fancy feast creamy delights. love is in the details. my abwill i have pain andating made daibloating today?ing game. my doctor recommended ibgard to manage my ibs. take control. ask your doctor about nonprescription ibgard. what do president clinton, rush limbaugh and billy idol have in common? they have all got electronic mail address on computer systems linked to the internet. >> who are these other people that are on it? >> other people just like you -- >> how did they get on it? who regulates and decides who gets on this highway and who doesn't? >> the services we're talking about are commercial services. you spend money to get on there. there's no regulation per se.
9:12 pm
you use your phone line and get online. >> compuserve was one. and aol had a vision to get everyone connected. when i heard that sound, i cried a little bit because i knew there was a big adventure waiting for me. >> welcome, you've got mail. >> it charged by the minute. it was like a taxi cab. aol's invention was to charge $19.95 a month all you can eat. now you could afford to be on the internet all you wanted. >> you didn't have to be a researcher. you could dial on to aol. it was designed to be point and click. >> steve case is the president of america online. i interviewed him via computer. >> what are the most popular online features now? >> he responds the real focus for us is on promoting interactivity. >> what's the best thing? to be able to communicate with just about anyone, anywhere.
9:13 pm
>> one of the thing it is a aol realizes is that america online can't be all 200 plus million people at once. you need little neighborhoods. so chat rooms became internet neighborhoods where people that share interests create their own space. >> you can click on the chat button or go to the people connection. that's what america online calls it. click on list rooms. you'll find different categories of rooms. >> when i was a kid i didn't know any other black gay people. the only people i knew are the folks i met america online. i didn't come out to my mother until much later but i was out on the internet. >> in many respects, aol was one of the first social media companies. >> computer communication is not like human communication. there's no facial expression to help you know which way something ambiguous is meant. so the isolated communicators of cyber space have come up with little signs made out of
9:14 pm
punctuation marks called emoticons. >> you were using text to have a conversation that felt like a face to face communication. you could see the start of this new online culture. >> it's a technological revolution that's changing the way we do everything. from making friends to falling in love. >> he was nice. he never gave me any of the come on lines. it was always friendly. >> you're telling me guys use pickup lines on a computer. >> uh-huh. >> as the internet grows,ing i'm finding information. i always want to find love. >> i just happened to stumble on michael's address. i picked him out of the blue. i read his profile and i was completely floored. >> many of the businesses of the internet work on connecting for the first time total strangers who have very narrow interests in common. >> aol was what was called a wall garden. picture this. you're paying a monthly fee for something with a limited number of things to do. no matter how many things they put inside their garden, it
9:15 pm
could never come close to the hundreds of millions of things that would pop up on the open internet. >> the thing about the worldwide web is that it has no central organizing body. it's chaotic. if you are running a website, how is anyone going to find you? >> stanford grad students like spending hour after hour discovering interesting places on the internet. that is how they stumbled on to a fortune. their million-dollar idea is is called yahoo!. >> yahoo! came in at just the perfect time. they literally made a list. it was just simply a listing. it was jerry and david's web listing. and they named it yahoo!. after red necks. >> yahoo! was an exercise organizing the internet. it quickly became the leading way to find things. it was a directory base system. it wasn't a search-based system. the idea was to cure rate the
9:16 pm
whole web. >> values around $700 million even though the company is barely profitable. >> with the success of netscape and the growth of the upstarts, yahoo! it was this energy that was not all in seattle. >> silicon valley versus what's going on in washington. it's more mankind versus microsoft. so silicon valley is one against the evil empire to the north. >> this is silicon valley. here microsoft is respected and feared as a powerful giant whose every footstep sends shivers through the entire industry. >> there's this emerging war basically between the silicon valley culture built up around the web and the microsoft
9:17 pm
it's not just a cultural clash, but an technological clash for power. >> bill gates had to turn microsoft around to have it address the internet in the way they did that was by coming up with internet explorer, which they presented as the world's best browser. it wasn't. microsoft's stufanit was pusheda lot of money behind it. >> here came microsoft with its own version of a web browser built into windows '95. their intention was to kill netscape as the browser and make internet explorer its replacement. >> 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. >> a consumer feeding frenzy. many computer stores like this one in miami openestomers could be the first to get their hands on windows 95. >> check out windows 95. >> it seems like an awful lot of fuss over a single product, but the product will have a huge impact not just on microsoft,
9:18 pm
but on the global computer industry. >> we're here to see bill gates in the video guide to windows 95. >> all of the employees of microsoft have been invited to a huge party in a tent over there on the microsoft campus. guess what song we could hear. rolling stones, "start me up." >> windows 95 was the most successful software launch to this day. everybody whether they really wanted to or not, went out and got windows 95. >> getting the rolling stones to allow their music to be used is the peek of microsoft's power. the challenge for microsoft is to stay there. the race is now on to exploit the internet may soon be microsoft's turn to fear the competition.
9:19 pm
♪ no, please, please, oh! ♪ (shrieks in terror) (heavy breathing and snorting) no, no. the running of the bulldogs? surprising. what's not surprising? how much money aleia saved by switching to geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more. the world is full of surprising moments. they're everywhere. and as a marriott rewards member,
9:20 pm
i can embrace them all. experience more as a member. the marriott portfolio has 30 brands in over 110 countries. so no matter where you go, you're here. when heartburn hits fight back fast with new tums chewy bites. fast relief in every bite. crunchy outside. chewy inside. tum tum tum tum
9:21 pm
new tums chewy bites. anyone who calls it a hobby doesn't understand. we know that a person's passion is what drives them. [ clapping ] and that's why every memorial we create is a true reflection of the individual. only a dignity memorial professional can celebrate a life like no other. find out how at sanfranciscodignity.com. that's why at comcast we're continuing to make4/7. our services more reliable than ever. like technology that can update itself. an advanced fiber-network infrustructure.
9:22 pm
new, more reliable equipment for your home. and a new culture built around customer service. it all adds up to our most reliable network ever. one that keeps you connected to what matters most. apple computer a pioneer in the software business has fallen on hard times after a big quarterly loss it decided to lay off 1,300 workers. >> how do you feel? did it have to turn out the way it did? >> it's hard to predict these things. >> you've thought about this. >> it is. it's sort of ancient history to me. i don't really think about this
9:23 pm
stuff anymore. apple and microsoft duke it out and netscape and microsoft duke it out. it's a spectator sport. none of whom really grasped the vision of apple. >> in the mid-1990s apple had a couple more ceos. as a result the company did worse and worse as the decade progressed. >> with big losses in the last quarter, with profit margins shrinking, apple seems destined for a takeover. this is a computer that even has fan clubs. >> i just love the apple. i always have. i can't say why. >> everyone was rooting for apple to survive, but it wasn't clear that apple would be around at the end of the 1990s. >> the troubled apple computer company may return to its core in an effort to boost sagging sales. apple will name steve jobs as its new chairman. he will replace a chairman that was oust the earlier this month. >> steve came over to apple, sold next to apple for $400
9:24 pm
million. he had no ambitions at apple at all. but steve jobs was watching apple flounder, and he just couldn't help himself. so he remade the company the way he wanted. there was no one to oppose him because the company was exhausted. >> steve jobs had exactly the abrasive but incisive personality that apple needed at that point. they needed someone to come in, say kill that project, kill that project, that's stupid, consolidate that, focus the company. >> i'd like to announce one of our first partnerships today, a a meaningful one. that's one with microsoft. we're very, very happy about it. we're very excited about it. i happen to have a special guest with me today via satellite down link. >> i don't think steve jobs has
9:25 pm
ever experienced before or after that people just going, boo, no. >> microsoft represented everything that these hard core apple fans hated. >> if we want to move forward, apple healthy and prospering again, we have to let go of a few things here. we have to let go of the notion that for apple to win, microsoft has to lose. >> there was an alliance now between these two former arch rivals. and microsoft was going to invest $150 million in apple, but more important from bill gates, apple would include microsoft's browser in all macintoshs. that was the last piece. he had domination of the browser world. >> internet explorer makes it easier to get around the web. but when you hit a button to access services from travel and entertainment, news and the like, you find sites owned by microsoft. >> that's what the government is worried about.
9:26 pm
over the next few years, americans may be buying millions of dollars in goods and services through the internet. that's a market too important, the government says, for one company to act as gate keeper. >> the justice department asked a federal court to fine microsoft corporation a record $1 million a day. >> the complaint against microsoft came from executives at netscape, a fast-growing software company that struck gold with its browser, but microsoft began giving away their browser and required to offer it with windows. >> they are able to illegally, we believe, use that power to block competition. they are able to pay people to not use our software. >> a lot of people are saying the antitrust laws are outvoted. technology will enforce competition on its own. the counterargument is that when you begin to get lots of people to use your operating system, it becomes harder and harder for
9:27 pm
somebody else to break in to that industry. >> microkoft soft chairman bill gates goes before congress for the first time today. gates is expected to face tough questions from the senate judiciary committee. >> i want to, if you don't mind, ask the audience one question. how many of you use intel-based pcs in this audience. raise your hand. of that group who use pcs, how many without microsoft's operating system. gentlemen, that's a monopoly. that's a lot. that's 100%. >> it is fair to say that when you compete with people, you think, hey, we're going to have a better product. we're going to win the customer. we're going to do a good job on these things. >> the hearing makes clear to most people, oh, so that gates guy he's not just like kind of a good-natured geek in glasses, he's another capitalist. >> police and security guards in
9:28 pm
belgium were caught flat flooded by a sneak attack on one of the world east wealthiest men. >> it's been a bad week for microsoft and its bill gates. yesterday at the chicago debut of his much-awaited windows 98 system the program crashed. >> you'll notice that this scanner -- >> it's shaping up as one of the antitrust battles of the industry. federal and state governments today sued microsoft saying the software giant is predatory and scheming to crush all competition. >> microsoft used its monopoly power to develop a choke hold on the browser software needed to access the internet. >> i don't think bill gates recognized the seriousness of the situation. this was a case that simply wasn't going to go away. >> worst case, they will ask us to create a crippled product and that would be too bad. that would hold us back. we're quite confident that won't
9:29 pm
happen. >> the government tried to avoid this trial in every way they could. but once bill rejected every settlement offer, the world just changed because it was like, okay, now we're going to court. the government might not be good at some things, but it's really good at litigation. when it decides it's going to win a lawsuit, you are going to face a formidable adversary. rethink what's possible. rethink your allergy pills. flonase sensimist allergy relief helps block 6 key inflammatory substances with a gentle mist. most allergy pills only block one. and 6 is greater than one. flonase sensimist. ♪ ♪ i'm living that yacht life, life, life ♪ ♪ top speed fifty knots life on the caribbean seas ♪ ♪ it's a champagne and models potpourri ♪
9:30 pm
♪ on my yacht made of cuban mahogany, ♪ ♪ gany, gany, gany, gany ♪ watch this don't get mad (bell mnemonic) get e*trade and get invested [ gasps, laughs ] you ever feel like... cliché foil characters scheming against a top insurer for no reason? nah. so, why don't we like flo?
9:31 pm
she has the name your price tool, and we want it. but why? why don't we actually do any work? why do you only own one suit? it's just the way it is, underdeveloped office character. you're right. thanks, bill. no, you're bill. i'm tom. you know what? no one cares.
9:32 pm
9:33 pm
it's been ten months since a new management team took over at apple. because of their hard work, i'm really pleased to report to you today that apple is back on track. and today i'm incredibly pleased to introduce imac, our consumer product. this is imac. >> the imac was a computer that was meant to look like something you would want people to see in your house. it ushered in this new era where design started to matter.
9:34 pm
>> the imac was sexy. i had a blue one. it had curves. it was built like a sports car. when people think of computers, they think of boring. beige, ewe tiutilitarian. apple made it fun. >> you can take it home, take it out of the box and be cruising the internet within ten minutes. that's not something you can do on if i other computer you know of. >> he added software to make it easier to connect to then internet. so the "i" in imac was for internet. >> it changed how people thought of apple and changed how people perceived what had been a a dying company suddenly people saw there was a spark here. >> in the world of computers, it's kill or be killed. the original wiz kid was thought to be dying an early death, but guess what. mac is back. >> a year ago nobody would have predicted this. steve jobs, the head man at apple computer, hailed as the hero who brought the company back from the verge of extinction.
9:35 pm
>> if 4 1/2 months, imac has become the number one selling computer in america. >> he represents that entrepreneur that it steve jobs represents the artist. >> you can say what you want about steve jobs, but he knew how to make people believe. >> in federal court in washington, d.c. today, a case of legal hardball and computer software. the u.s. government set out to prove that computer industry giant microsoft tried to bully the competition illegally into submission or out of business. >> as microsoft and justice department lawyers came to battle at the courthouse, a bill gates impersonator showed up. a adding a surreal touch. inside the courtroom, the real bill gates on videotape under oath in a deposition taken in august. >> the thing about a deposition is that the only thing that the witness can really do is to sit there and tell the truth simply and directly. the first two hours of the
9:36 pm
deposition was quite unexpected. >> from the stuff you have given me -- >> i'm asking if you have one. >> i don't know what you mean by present recollection? what do you mean by internet software? >> this person who i know is brilliant and articulate and passionate is withdrawn, playing word games, being evasive, doing everything that makes him look like he's not confident in his position. >> you recognize this is a document produced from microsoft's files. do you not, sir? >> no. >> you don't? >> how would i know that? >> the famous litigator has a photographic memory. he would ask gates, do you remember saying this? no, i would never say something like that. >> boys without notes would say would you call up this document. >> did you know microsoft people were meeting with netscape
9:37 pm
before they met? >> i don't recall knowing in advance. >> government lawyer david boiz revealed an internal memorandum written by gates three weeks before that meeting. i think there's a powerful deal of some kind we can do with netscape. we could pay them money as part of the deal, buying some piece of them or something. >> when i covered the trial, one of the things the judge said to me is he didn't believe bill gates. that deposition was very instrumental in shaping the judge's decision. >> i have never seen a stamp like that or used a stamp like that. >> haven't you seen stamps like that in every single one of the documents you have been shown during this deposition. >> can you get me all of the exhibits? >> just a waste of time. >> it is a waste of time. >> technology is hard to understand. >> their pitch to the judge was trust us.
9:38 pm
we're doing what we're doing for the consumer. the deposition made him and the company look like they were not trustworthy. >> because this deposition and the snippets of it that played out day after day on national television, it was an incredibly precipitous decline in how most people viewed bill gates. >> he was an environment that unlike almost every other environment he operates he did not control. >> no witness controls a deposition. no matter how rich, how powerful, every witness has to sit there and answer questions. >> in words surprisingly blunt, the judge declared microsoft a monopoly. lawyers from the justice department in the 19 states that sued microsoft immediately claimed victory. >> microsoft is a monopolist and engaged in massive anti-competitive practices. >> it drove bill gates crazy that the government was portraying him as some kind of evil force. was he ruthless as a businessman, yes. did he see himself as ruthless
9:39 pm
businessman, no. he saw himself as someone advancing the common good. government didn't see it that way. at whole foods market, we believe in food that's naturally beautiful and fresh. delicious and powerful, and full of nutrients. so there are no artificial colors... no artificial flavors... no artificial preservatives... and no artificial sweeteners... ...in any of the food we sell. we believe that the food we eat connects us to the natural world and to each other. we believe in real food™. whole foods market.
9:40 pm
at the lexus golden opportunity sales event before it ends. choose from the is turbo, es 350 or nx turbo
9:41 pm
for $299 a month for 36 months if you lease now. experience amazing at your lexus dealer. only tempur-breeze® mattresses. use an integrated system of technologies to keep you cool while you sleep. ultra-breathable support layers channel heat away from your body. purecool technology delivers cooling comfort you can feel. and the performance cover is cool to the touch. so you sleep cool and wake up feeling powerful. only exclusive retailers carry breeze. find yours at tempurpedic.com/cooling. >> announcer: no one loves a road trip like your furry sidekick! so when your "side glass" gets damaged... [dog barks] trust safelite autoglass to fix it fast. it's easy! just bring it to us, or let us come to you, and we'll get you back on the road! >> woman: thank you so much. >> safelite tech: my pleasure. >> announcer: 'cause we care about you...
9:42 pm
and your co-pilot. [dog barks] ♪safelite repair, safelite replace.♪ there's a lot of chat about
9:43 pm
technology and business you'd expect that but some of the conversation might surprise you. it's not just tech talk. they are talking about sex. >> are you an adult? >> what she does is she loads pictures mostly x-rated pictures into her computer and then customers anywhere in the world can call up laura's lair and see on their home computer this list. 15,000 descriptions of photos in language that's not always suitable for tv. >> pornography is always the first to make money on any new technology and not just technology since computers. i mean, since the beginning. >> laura ice customers pay to transfer these photos from her computer to their computer through their phone lines. >> how do i know? >> you didn't tell me that. >> stop sweating. >> the adult industry was very interested in figuring out how to make credit cards work. that had benefits for online
9:44 pm
commerce. it boosted consumer acceptance of online credit card use. >> our little shopping carts that we now use are invented by pornographers. what was unknown whether somebody could set up a website and actually make money. and the proof of concept of that was pornography. >> for the most part, entrepreneurs have not figured out a way to make profit on the internet. that is until ebay came along. >> the auction site was started as a hobby. three years later it has a market value close to $6 million and is a superstar on wall street. ebay makes its money by charging to list an item and takes a percentage of the selling price if it sells. >> if you have an item you want to sell like a 1967 green hornet lunch pail, you write up a brief description, add a digital photo
9:45 pm
and decide on an opening bid. >> ebay changed everything, and not because what they were offering was so incredible and revolutionary, essentially what they were doing was they were automating the middle man. >> 600 million hits a month. that's a lot of people. how do you stop the unscrupulous? >> problems like that are very rare on ebay. it's based on trust. >> one thing ebay pioneered is the idea we rate each other. so future participants can see whether you're a good person to deal with or not. it's in your financial interest to be looked up to and respected as a trustworthy transactional partner. >> we're going to talk about the superstars of the stock market. those red hot internet stocks. companies that in some cases didn't exist a few years ago trading in the stratosphere. the whole dotcom bubble of the late '90s was based on the idea
9:46 pm
of what counted was eye balls. if you could get enough people using your stuff, you would figure out a way organically from that to make a profit. >> the daily volume, 3.7 million shares. we are almost at $2 billion company. >> people love these stocks. anything that has dot com or net in the name goes like hot cakes. >> it's the earth's biggest bookstore. not just the country, but the earth's. but you can't shop there unless you have a computer. it's a virtual bookstore. >> books, books and more books. that's what they do at amazon.com. >> if you were to print the catalog, it would be the size of seven new york city phonebooks. >> no the early '90s jeff bezos looked at what the internet could be and decided it it could be anything. >> bezos started amazon.com at this home in seattle in 1994. less than five years later, his idea of selling books on internet has grown into a multibillion dollar business.
9:47 pm
>> the largest physical book stores only carry 175,000 titles. amazon.com has 2.5 million catalogs. there's no way to have that physical bookstore. >> bezos understood it would decades to create this infrastructure of shape shipping and warehouses. he had this vision of up end in the retail business. >> what's often said about your company. you're losing money. >> i can tell you that i think it's good we're losing money right now. it's important to amazon.com in the long-term. >> we'd like to know what day it is. >> you can't be the everything store unless you're absolutely gigantic. bezos' philosophy was to get big fast. earning money, making a profit, that will come later. for now, let's become the 800-pound gorilla. >> more and more people are going to be shopping online. it's more convenient because you have unlimited selection.
9:48 pm
the convenience is the year that shopping becomes of age ob the internet. >> this was a time that allowed you to make choices without gatekeepers choosing things for you. you could decide. i want that and you'd get it. if you don't live in a big city, you can get big city stuff. >> the worldwide computer network called the internet has inspired more movies than any big deal fad since the cb radio boom of the 1970s. the internet itself is definitely exploding. >> within two years it's become so powerful. >> we're sitting on the most perfect beach in the world and we can think about where can i hook up. >> in 1999 we are culturally, socially, financially quite dependent on the internet. >> in washington today a special senate committee is preparing to release a report on the y2k mill loam millennium
9:49 pm
computer problem. one of the most serious and potentially devastating events the nation has ever encountered. >> the brains of most computers have tiny built-in clocks. many register the year with only the last two digits assuming the first two are always 19. >> the problem was not that the computer would think it was 1900. the problem is it wouldn't know what to do. it would break down and say can't process this. >> it could trigger widespread computer failures, blackouts and breakdowns of everything from home appliances to the global financial system. >> if we left things as they are right now, the military would effectively shut down. >> the pentagon will spend at least $4 billion to diffuse the millennial bomb. and pentagon officials are confident they will do it. critics claim they started too late and the thousands of fixes won't be done in time. >> many states have not yet updated their computers. that run programs such as medicaid and food stamps, benefits that millions of families rely on. >> on new year's eve 1999, i was
9:50 pm
preparing for the world to shutdown. >> for the american people, the year 2000 is a sign of impending chaos. >> at home, i have flashlights, batteries, canned foods. >> what do you think will happen? >> i think it's going to be riots. >> why would dog packs will rome the street. many of these bullets stockpiling reference as a precaution. >> i want to be prepared in case anything happens y 2k. hi.
9:51 pm
i'm the one clocking in... when you're clocking out. sensing your every move and automatically adjusting to help you stay effortlessly comfortable. there. i can even warm these to help you fall asleep faster. does your bed do that? oh. i don't actually talk. though i'm smart enough to. i'm the new sleep number 360 smart bed. let's meet at a sleep number store.
9:52 pm
(vo)keeps your home clean,hat try tidy cats breeze. the number one goes through the no mess litter pellets to the super absorbent odor-locking pad. and the number two stays on top for easy removal. switch out the pads once a week. litter once a month. it's that easy. tidy cats breeze. changing the way you think about litter, one box at a time. when heartburn hits fight back fast with new tums chewy bites. fast relief in every bite. crunchy outside. chewy inside. tum tum tum tum new tums chewy bites.
9:53 pm
9:54 pm
if you are just joining us good morning. let us assure you all is well. apossible lips is not now. the sky is not falling. >> for the most part life went on as normal. the sun came up, people watched morning television and ate their wheatties. >> we have spent in this country $100 billion corrected y2-k. >> part of the reasons why disaster didn't occur on y2-k was because the government and corporations realized the
9:55 pm
problem and spent months in preparation for that moment. >> it was a big deal, a lot of energy spent, a lot of fear, did nothing. >> good afternoon. microsoft was founded 25 years ago and identify had the same job as ceo during that entire 25 year period. today, steve is going to step up to a new role and he will be ceo of microsoft. >> by the time this private school was over, microsoft wound up settling but microsoft was really really chasened in the end by that long grueling case. >> does the government's case against microsoft have anything to do with this change in leadership? >> no, absolutely not. if anything this change underscores what a dynamic competitive business we have, but t not at all related. >> bill gates had been very successful, he had an enormous amount of money, he may have
9:56 pm
very well thought given what he had already accomplished, the highest and best use of his remaining years was to spend that money helping hue about what timety. >> it was just a few months back, if your company ended in.come it was a good thing but the end of this week in wall street a lot of analyst think this bump nl is about to burt and a few of those dot coms will be ready to go. >> sales, profits and growth, but reality has now set in. >> these upstarts, have income. they're saying we are worth billions of, where's your heavy knew. >> when the venture cap was stopped putting money in you could time the bubble, you could say, you know if we all believe this fantasy it works. if some of us stop believes it's a prelude to its failure.
9:57 pm
>> most dot com companies will be out of business next year e dim nated $25,000 of $30,000 internet companies. >> what sort of message do you have for all of us as we look at what's happening to the dot com businesses and the stock market? >> don't investigate in dot coms. >> the internet opened a lot of things for people, they made things easier for people and that didn't change, bubble or no bubble. >> with more than a billion web pages and websites out there on the intern, it's no wonder the most common thing on the web is searching and trying to find what you're looking for. there isn't been anything new in the search field for years until something called google came along. >> a search -- google goes way beyond that. google will say what do other web pages say about this page.
9:58 pm
>> google capturing the entire page and they made a map of what link to what. and found things with an contreras that know one thought of. >> microsoft was overtaken by exactly the thing bill was concerned about it about overtaken by. net escape and google are the same thing. >> the rate of change in your lives have grown faster and faster. the 0s and 1s of commuter language are transforming every part of our lives. >> i have the little ones around to be able to go to my commuter and grocery stop. it's incredible to do that. >> what i found was another world. another world of caring concerned people. >> once you become familiar with it, it becomes a friend, companion. >> you have a sense of possibility that geography use to deny you, without moving
9:59 pm
yourself, the world would come to you. >> any student could call it the text or pictures from any book or tap into a super computer from nasa. a special that a school city hospice could diagnosis patients from anywhere. >> the web is incredible because it's the fulfillment of our dreams. it would met mirror size in a device. >> it's the equipment of electricity. the changes are so profound. >> when we look back from 100 years from now this is the point where we're going to say everything is changed. >> i wasn't prepared to translate that. >> the little mark with the a and the reasoning around it. >> at. >> that's what i thought. katy said it was about.
10:00 pm
and it sound stupid when i said violence @ -- violence@nbc. >> a lot of people can communicate with writers and producers. allan can you explain what internet is? my first announcement is one i think you all have been waiting for. >> only i need to understand. >> i am mostly pissed off that not enough people are pissed off. >> politicians very visible and they tend to be liars, which is great so you can go after them. >> it's making me angry if i feel like

144 Views

info Stream Only

Uploaded by TV Archive on