Formation of digital sectors of the economy at the end of the 20th century

New Economy is a buzzword to describe new, fast-growing industries that are at the forefront of technology and are considered to be driving economic growth and productivity. The new economy was first announced in the late 1990s, when high-tech tools, especially the Internet and increasingly powerful computers, appeared in the consumer and business market. The new economy was seen as a transition from an economy based on production and commodities to an economy that uses technology to create new products and services at a speed that the traditional manufacturing economy could not match. The idea that a new economy had emerged was part of the hysteria associated with the tech bubble of the late 1990s and early 2000s. The new economy has been variously called the knowledge economy, the data economy, the e-commerce economy, and so on. Unfortunately, for the long-term health of the new economy that emerged in the 90s, investors and financial institutions raised the prices of technology sector stocks to unprecedented high levels, without fully taking into account fundamental factors. The hype around the tech sector has done more harm than good, and the speed at which these firms have been forced to become the next Microsoft has probably destroyed many potentially good business ideas in pursuit of great ones. © 2022, Rossiiskaya Akademiya Nauk, Institut Istorii (Russian Academy of Sciences, Institute of General Hist). All rights reserved.