Business 2.0

How to Make Money on the Net


The second Internet boom is quietly taking shape -- and this one looks like it's going to last. Here's how six innovative businesses learned from the past and have begun to make the Web work for them. When Wells Fargo (WFC) was a startup, broadband meant 5 mph. That was the average speed of the Wells Fargo stagecoaches that carried bullion and financial documents between the boomtown of San Francisco and cities to the east. The system had its problems -- bandwidth was limited by the need to replace the horses every 12 miles, and then as now, online security was an issue. (Hackers today, bad guys with six-shooters back then.) But the stagecoach beat shipping by sea, which took upwards of six months. Mail delivery from St. Louis to San Francisco in less than four weeks? That was revolutionary technology.