EVENT
Browser Wars
The 1995–2000 competitive contest between Netscape and Microsoft Internet Explorer — the first industry-scale demonstration of the software-eating pattern and the event that defined Andreessen's formative commercial experience.
The browser wars name the competitive contest between Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer that unfolded between 1995 and 2000. Netscape, commercializing the Mosaic technology Andreessen had co-developed, launched in 1994 and went public in August 1995 in an IPO conventionally treated as the opening of the commercial internet era. Microsoft bundled Internet Explorer with Windows starting with version 3.0 in 1996, rapidly overtaking Netscape's market share and triggering the antitrust case United States v. Microsoft that would occupy American technology policy through 2001. Netscape was acquired by AOL in 1999. The episode is the formative commercial experience of Andreessen's career and the specific case study through which he developed his subsequent thinking about platform dynamics, competitive response, and the costs of regulatory intervention.
In The You On AI Field Guide
Netscape's 1995 IPO is conventionally cited as the event that opened the commercial internet era. The company priced its initial offering at $28 per share, traded as high as $75 on the first day, and