The early 1990s occupy a strange place in the memory of the software industry—especially for those who tracked the fortunes of multimedia. In 1993, the phrase “interactive CD-ROM” was a badge of innovation, still a few years from being supplanted by the web, but already everywhere on the lips of educators, publishers, and software developers. Measuring the actual contours of this moment means wading into ISIC 6201—computer programming activities—a code broad enough to hold the whole messy sector, yet too blunt, in itself, to distinguish a multimedia startup from a firm writing accounting software.
The process begins with the assembly of a registry of all firms coded under ISIC 6201 for the country in question. In the United States and several other developed markets, the list by 1993 was already long: software consultancies, bespoke programmers, and, crucially, a new wave of companies devoted to “multimedia”—the catchall for interactive content that combined video, sound, text, and sometimes animation on a single disc. Business registry data on its own is only a starting point. Few companies, especially in their formal filings, described themselves primarily as “CD-ROM developers.” A second pass is needed.
To filter for multimedia specialists, analysts must turn to trade directories, archived industry magazines, and the earliest online discussion boards (often carried over from BBS systems or university networks). Company press releases and conference rosters from events like Comdex or SIGGRAPH provide additional clues—any firm touting “interactive learning,” “edutainment,” or “multimedia publishing” in its materials is a candidate. Many of these companies announced partnerships with hardware makers, schools, or publishers eager to experiment with the format, and such deals, often covered in the trade press, offer an external signal of focus.
With a reasonably refined list of multimedia software developers, the next challenge is to correlate their activity with actual CD-ROM sales. Here, the data is patchy. Retail sales figures for CD-ROM titles were collected by a handful of market research firms (IDC, for example) and sometimes published in trade magazines or industry reports. These data points—usually quarterly or annual tallies of units shipped or dollars earned—offer a view of demand, but not always at the company level. Major hits (think of early encyclopedias or educational games) are visible in bestseller lists, but many small developers produced only a handful of titles before folding or moving on to other work.
Matching sales data to developer counts is part detective work, part triangulation. In years and markets where unit sales spiked, a surge in new ISIC 6201 registrations can often be observed—suggesting a bandwagon effect, as entrepreneurs and even established publishers raced to launch multimedia arms. Company directories can be cross-referenced against the titles listed in retail or library catalogs, revealing who was actually getting product into the market. In some regions, public funding for “new media” initiatives left a trail of grant awards and project announcements, which can be aligned with both registry data and reported sales.
A complicating factor is the sheer churn of the sector. Multimedia, as a buzzword, pulled in companies from many adjacent domains—graphic design shops, audio studios, even traditional book publishers. Some registered new subsidiaries or joint ventures under ISIC 6201 solely for the CD-ROM market, then quietly retired the entity when the fad faded or the economics proved harder than anticipated.
Documentation is essential. Every assumption about which firms “count,” every decision to include or exclude a borderline case, and each link between a title’s sales and a developer’s registry entry should be recorded. The numbers will never line up perfectly; some bestsellers were developed by teams with no legal entity, or were distributed through convoluted publishing arrangements. Yet, by layering ISIC 6201 developer data with CD-ROM sales figures, a broad pattern emerges: a sector briefly swelling in response to new technology, drawing in talent and investment, and—within a few years—just as rapidly reshaping itself for the next digital wave.
In the details, there are lessons about hype cycles, the risks of technological bet-hedging, and the volatility of early adoption. Multimedia’s golden age was short, but for a brief moment in 1993, it left a data trail that analysts and policymakers can still trace—if they are willing to read between the lines.