As of this year, energy drinks are a roughly $80 billion business. Relatively speaking, however, the category is quite young, about 200 years younger than soda. In the 1980s, an Austrian businessman fell in love with Krating Daeng, a bottled drink adored in Thailand for helping workers stay alert. He partnered with that company’s founder, added carbonation (to appeal to international consumers), and rebranded it with an English name. Thus Red Bull was born, and an entirely new class of beverage was introduced to the world.