The only difference is that darn stock market and the lower valuation it is giving to Internet ventures. And, that makes all the difference. The goal of many of the venture capitalists and some of the entrepreneurs was simply to take a company public to have highly-valued shares to sell on the open market. This is why so many Internet, consumer-retailing companies sprouted up and received funding. It's not that they were great long-term opportunities with sustainable, solid profit margins.
Internet sales have advantages over mortar stores.
Then, these dubious companies found their way into established mutual funds. Not to underperform the broader stock market. If the market tanks and all mutual funds do poorly, people won't blame their money manager. But, if overvalued stocks continue to go up, and a manager is left behind, because he wouldn't buy overvalued stocks, money pours out from his mutual fund. Possibly, he is replaced as the fund's manager.