互联网泡沫幸存者给我们的五大启示

    自1999年疯狂的互联网热潮至今已经15年了。伴随着这之前几年第一次互联网热潮的是过度热捧的首次公开募股，这阵热潮在持续一段时间后达到了顶峰。当然，它垮掉的速度要更快。

    如今，那个时代的记忆仍然挥之不去——奢华的天台聚会，迅猛的首次公开募股和大量财富的创造（至少是纸面上的）——让人感觉既传奇又古怪。随着Twitter的市场估值达到收入的70倍，以及科技中心的成本不断攀升，关于另一个非理性繁荣的时代是否即将到来、抑或已经到来的争论日趋热烈。

    正如繁荣终有萧条的一天，萧条中也总会有幸存者。20世纪90年代末炙手可热的初创公司中，仍有许多至今仍然生机勃勃，尤其是在互联网【例如阿卡迈（Akamai）、瞻博网络（Juniper）】、商业软件【例如红帽（RedHat）】和消费者网络（例如Angie's List、Shutterfly）等领域。

    更引人注目的是，第一代网络初创公司中的老手们不仅仅成功地存活下来，而且成为拥有百亿或千亿市值的大型品牌。无论互联网行业会不会迎来下一次繁荣和萧条，就如何建立一家经久不衰的初创公司而言，下面这五家公司都给人们上了一课。

    亚马逊（Amazon）：无论如何，坚持愿景，不过同时也要根据数据来调整愿景。杰夫•贝佐斯写给股东的年度致信多年来一直没有什么变化。1997年，他表示亚马逊会从长远的角度为股东创造价值。为了达到这个目标，他将“延伸、巩固我们目前的市场领先地位”，同时“坚持以顾客为本。”

    即便在萧条期，亚马逊也坚持了这两点。在公司对最初愿景的坚持下，它的长期股东获得了回报，亚马逊的市值如今已经高达1850亿美元。亚马逊坚定却不顽固。它不懈地追踪顾客的数据，了解他们如何使用网站，什么能让他们产生共鸣。借此，亚马逊得以实现了扩张，同时提高了长期目标。亚马逊对顾客的关注从未间断，或许比起对自己的了解，他们对顾客的了解还要更胜一筹。

    奈飞（Netflix）：服务于一个不会消失、却可能会随着时间而变的需求。与贝佐斯一样，里德•哈斯廷斯有着长远的目标。他在2009年告诉《财富》：“（人们）出现疼痛时，你会想着扮演阿司匹林，而不是维生素。阿司匹林可以切实解决一些人的特定问题，而维生素则是个大体上‘可有可无’的市场。”

    奈飞也许不会治愈任何疼痛，它更像是在给人挠痒。不过人们的这一种痒永远不会消失，那就是：用较低的价格、简单的方式来观看电影和电视。即便在奈飞统治了DVD租赁市场时，哈斯廷斯也有计划：一旦宽带网变得足够快速和便宜，就开展流媒体视频服务。

    与此同时，奈飞也证明自己可以灵活地满足用户需求。这家公司很早就开始明智地从赚取碟片租借费转向更流行的每月订阅费。最近，哈斯廷斯将业务扩展到了原创内容，增加订阅量。尽管怀疑者认为这个举措的代价过于昂贵。

    It's now been 15 years since 1999, a year that has since become synonymous with crazy Internet excess. The first Internet boom began several years earlier with an overhyped IPO and took a while to reach its febrile climax. Of course, it all crashed down much more quickly.

    Today, the lingering memories of the time -- extravagant rooftop parties, metoric IPOs, and massive wealth creation (at least on paper) -- feel at once legendary and quaint. With Twitter trading at 70 times revenue and costs of living rising in tech centers, the debate rages on over whether another period of irrational exuberance is nigh, if not already upon us.

    Just as every boom must have its bust, every bust will see its share of survivors. Many of the hot startups of the late 1990s are still alive and kicking, especially in networking (Akamai (AKAM), Juniper (JNPR)), business software (RedHat (RHAT)), and the consumer web (Angie's List (ANGI), Shutterfly (SFLY)).

    More notably, other veterans of the first generation of web startups have not only survived, they continue to be big online brands with 11-or 12-digit market caps. Whether the Internet industry is heading for another boom and bust, these five companies offer lessons on how to build a startup with the power to endure.

    -Amazon (AMZN):Stick to your vision no matter what, but fine-tune it with data. Jeff Bezos's annual letters to shareholders haven't changed much over the years. In 1997, he said Amazon would build shareholder value over the long term. But to do this he would "extend and solidify our current market leadership position" and "focus relentlessly on our customers."

    Even through the bust, Amazon did just that. Long-term shareholders have rewarded this stubborn adherence to an original vision with a $185 billion market value. But Amazon wasn't too stubborn. It obsessively tracked data on shoppers, how they used the site, what resonated with them to expand and enhance its long-term goal. The focus was so relentless, Amazon may know its customers better than they know themselves.

    -Netflix (NFLX):Serve a need that won't go away, but may change with times. Like Bezos, Reed Hastings had a long-term goal. "When there's an ache, you want to be like aspirin, not vitamins," he told Fortune in 2009. "Aspirin solves a very particular problem someone has, whereas vitamins are a general 'nice to have' market."

    Netflix may not cure any aches; it's more like it scratches an itch. But it's an itch that never goes away. Watch movies and TVs in a low-cost, simple way. Even when Netflix was dominating in DVD rentals, however, Hastings had plans for a streaming-video service once broadband was fast and cheap enough.

    At the same time, Netflix has shown it can nimbly adapt to its users' demands. The company made an early -- and shrewd -- shift from a by-the-disc rental fee to a monthly subscription that was more popular. More recently, Hastings branched into original content to increase subscriptions at a time when skeptics questioned whether a move would be too costly.