This column memorializes those dot bombs which have become extinct. Some of them went under through no fault of their own, others had such poor management and such incredibly silly business models that it's astounding that they received any funding in the first place.
Beenz was launched amid much fanfare in March 1999. It had grandiose plans to create a new kind of currency, "beenz", which were intended to allow customers to pay for products online. The concept was to reward customers for visiting sponsored web sites.
For example, a site might offer to pay the Beenz company $1 to gain a customer. Beenz, in turn, would give the customer 25 Beenz (or some other amount) to visit said site. This was based upon a "pay-per-click" business model. Beenz then planned to get a commission on all of the products purchased from that customer on that web site.
This concept apparently excited quite a few investors, as they laid down over $80 million in four separate funding rounds. I guess the idea seemed quite exciting back in the days when Yahoo was trading at over $200 a share.
Beenz didn't last long - a little over two years, in fact. The concept was valid, perhaps, but the business model was not well thought out. As with most of the recent dot bomb failures, Beenz depended a little too heavily on venture capital and spent way too much money for it's own good.
The idea that a company might pay a commission on purchases is a good one. The concept that companies will pay merely to get people to walk in the door (so to speak) is relatively weak, even considering the wild-eyed ideas that were flying around the internet in 1999. And, of course, like most internet dot bombs, Beenz burned through cash like it was going out of style.
On August 26th, 2001, Beenz finally threw in the towel, after nusuccessfully attempting to get additional funding. Of course the writing was on the wall well beforehand. At first you could do almost anything with your Beenz, but months before it's final death you could not find anywhere to spend or earn Beenz to save your life.
Beenz homepage (now defunct) summed up the end,
"No beenz earning or spending transactions will be honored after that date and time. Any beenz remaining in a Member's account after 12:01 am (EST) on August 26, 2001 will be invalidated by beenz.com, and the Member will not be entitled to any compensation of any kind for such invalidated beenz".
Add this company to the increasingly large list of bad ideas which should never have received funding in the first place.
May it rest in peace.
Unless otherwise noted, all photos and text is Copyright © Richard G Lowe, Jr.