When I was in my early 20's, there existed a service called WebTV (https://www.webtv.net).
WebTV itself was fairly ahead of its time. A single point of contact for everything you needed to do without having to own a computer and from the comfort of your couch. Certain models had DVR features; but you also had news, email, and chat (via IRC).
IRC was the shining star of WebTV. Anyone who had WebTV was using it for IRC; it was addictive.
In 2001, I built a website on (then) Virtual Avenue, called QuantumIRC Networks, based around my (then) popularity on IRC. It featured a number of sub services that I created and offered to people.
Virtual Avenue was bought out by Network Solutions; prior to which they shut down free web hosting.
WebTV sold out to Microsoft who butchered it into non-existence. I lost the domain.
IRC still exists but lost steam when services like Discord (which is basically a ghetto IRC) and MySpace showed up.
Also, instant messaging was faster and easier to use; but all of them (AIM, YIM, MSN Messenger) are basically dead as well.
The domain came back up for sale. I bought it. Because it represents the very first domain I owned before owning domains was mainstream. It's sentimental. It's mine.