You can't compare the internet to Bitcoin. Sure, many people didn't know the use of it 20 years ago. But it was a completely new thing. Bitcoin is money.
Bitcoin is not money just like the internet is not a digital version of USPS... Bitcoin is a protocol/technology. One of its applications is digital cash.
Bitcoin the "protocol/technology" in your analogy would be tcp/ip. To my knowledge, no one made a fortune buying "shares of internet."
The analogy was meant to help you understand that bitcoin is a technology that has applications (digital cash)... Obviously the two protocols have different characteristics...