They were tied to potential fortunes to be made, somewhere in the future. New metrics like counting “eyeballs” and “mind share” were used to show companies were growing, even if that growth couldn’t be measured in dollars and cents. Heck, sometimes a dot-com stock would increase in value even after it announced losses! Investors might take that as a sign the company was “wisely” plowing its money into strategies for growing at all cost.
