Petteri Pyyny
10 Jun 2020 4:00
Damn. It is once again time for me to look back and realize how old I am. And how long it has been when we originally launched this little project of ours, called AfterDawn. Exactly 21 years ago we launched our site - to the whopping userbase of appx. five people (our friends who we bombarded with links to our site via IRC).
To somehow put this time in some kind of a context: when our site was launched, the dominant search engine was called AltaVista and majority of our first year users were still using dial-up modems to connect to the Internet.
Technologies have changed - we started AfterDawn as a source of information for people interested in MP3 technology and software. Somehow we then pivoted to cover DVDs, video technologies and P2P. And then, online services. And then mobile phones. And, and.. Only thing that has been constant in this business, is the fact that everything changes. The way how people read news has changed dramatically, as have the technologies people use and we cover. We have simply adapted to the new realities. And will continue to do so, in order to stay relevant.
These past 21 years have been an incredible journey for me and my colleagues. To get some kind of an idea what this journey has involved, you might want to read my last year's coverage where I tried to summarize all the changes we've gone through over these past 21 years.
Anyway. As always, I'd like to thank my coworkers and co-founders for these years we've spent together building this site. Also, I'd like to thank all our employees - past and present - for all their hard work through these years. And most importantly, I'd like to thank all of you: our dear volunteer moderators, our forum users and our readers. Without you guys, this site wouldn't exist.
Thank you.
-Petteri Pyyny, CEO
AfterDawn Oy