DrinkExchange was a monthly social and business networking party started in

San Francisco, California San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

during the

dot com bubble The dot-com bubble (or dot-com boom) was a stock market bubble that ballooned during the late-1990s and peaked on Friday, March 10, 2000. This period of market growth coincided with the widespread adoption of the World Wide Web and the Intern ...

. The event was started in February, 1997 by Ali Partovi, co-founder of the Internet firm

LinkExchange LinkExchange was a popular Internet advertising cooperative, similar in function to a webring, originally known as Internet Link Exchange or ILE. It was founded in March 1996 by 23-year-old Harvard graduates Tony Hsieh (who later went on to inv ...

, and his roommate-coworkers Alan Shusterman and Mike Bayle, who were initially looking to find ways to improve their social life. The format was humorously based on LinkExchange's early

ad exchange An ad exchange is a technology platform that facilitates the buying and selling of media advertising inventory from multiple ad networks. Prices for the inventory are determined through real-time bidding (RTB). The approach is technology-driven ...

model (though not formally affiliated with the company), by which

web publishers Electronic publishing (also referred to as e-publishing, digital publishing, or online publishing) includes the digital publication of e-books, digital magazines, and the development of digital libraries and catalogues. It also includes the edit ...

could trade two outgoing "clicks" on

banner ads A web banner or banner ad is a form of advertising on the World Wide Web delivered by an ad server. This form of online advertising entails embedding an advertisement into a web page. It is intended to attract traffic to a website by linking to ...

placed on their site for one visitor backlink from other publishers. At the events, participants were encouraged to buy two alcoholic drinks, and give one to a fellow guest. Invitations to the initial event, held at the local Gordon Biersch brewery, were in the form of a mock product announcement press release from LinkExchange, which ended up becoming a local

viral email A viral email (also known as a "pass-along email") is an email which rapidly propagates from person to person, generally in a word-of-mouth manner. It is an example of a viral phenomenon, which is used for profit in viral marketing, but can also ...

phenomenon and attracting seventy guests. Later events drew more than one thousand participants each, included corporate sponsorships, and eventually spread to

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

San Diego San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

, and

Washington, DC Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and Federal district of the United States, federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from ...

. The parties continued until the "dot com crash" of 2001.

References

{{reflist Dot-com bubble Organizations based in San Francisco 1997 establishments in California 2001 disestablishments in California Food and drink in the San Francisco Bay Area