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- beenz.com was a website that allowed consumers to earn beenz, a type of online currency (and Bitcoin predecessor), for performing activities such as visiting a web site, shopping online, or logging on through an Internet service provider. The beenz e-currency could then be spent with participating online merchants. The marketing and brand concept positioned Beenz as "the web's currency", global money that would challenge the world's major currencies. The Beenz management team raised almost $100 million from venture capitalists including Apax Patricof, Larry Ellison of Oracle, Michael Saylor of Microstrategy, François Pinault of PPR, Vivendi Universal, Italian financier Carlo de Benedetti and Hikari Tsushin of Japan. Since launching a new currency is illegal in many countries, beenz management and its legal teams had to meet with finance ministers across Europe to assure them that Beenz would be categorized as virtual points. Beenz's offices in London were visited by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) on suspicion of operating an unlicensed bank. Beenz received several awards for its marketing campaign. Beenz operated in the United States, Sweden, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Singapore, Australia and China. At its peak, there were offices in 15 countries, and translations of the beenz website into several languages. After the dot-com bubble burst, the company replaced its CEO, Philip Letts, with a team including the founder, Charles Cohen, and other Board directors Stephen Limpe, Don McGuire and Sean Lane. The company could not go public, further funding did not materialise, and the company was sold to US-based Carlson Marketing Group in 2001 for an undisclosed sum. Carlson planned to integrate the beenz system into the customer relationship management tools they offered to clients. After the sale of the company to Carlson, beenz account holders were given a period of time to redeem their beenz before it became integrated. Competitors like Amazon who, along with Visa, built systems allowing direct online payments via debit or credit cards, meant many of Beenz's clients moved to these new platforms, and Beenz eventually lost most of its clients. Carlson did not renew the domain name. In June 2008, CNET counted Beenz among the greatest dotcom disasters. (en)
- I beenz, e la beenz.com inc., sono una moneta elettronica nata nel 1998 sulla scorta dell'idea di , uno dei fondatori e principale promotore del concetto su cui si poggiava l'attività, di dar vita alla prima moneta virtuale (the web's currency). Nati sull'onda della web economy, la società ha condiviso il destino di molte che, nate in quegli anni, non sono riuscite a raggiungere una propria stabilità imprenditoriale risentendo degli effetti negativi della recessione economica iniziata sul finire del 2000 che ha investito tutte le aziende operanti sul web. L'azienda ha cessato di esistere nel 2001, attraverso liquidazione delle filiali locali e vendita della casa madre alla Carlson Marketing Group. (it)
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- beenz.com was a website that allowed consumers to earn beenz, a type of online currency (and Bitcoin predecessor), for performing activities such as visiting a web site, shopping online, or logging on through an Internet service provider. The beenz e-currency could then be spent with participating online merchants. Beenz operated in the United States, Sweden, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Singapore, Australia and China. At its peak, there were offices in 15 countries, and translations of the beenz website into several languages. (en)
- I beenz, e la beenz.com inc., sono una moneta elettronica nata nel 1998 sulla scorta dell'idea di , uno dei fondatori e principale promotore del concetto su cui si poggiava l'attività, di dar vita alla prima moneta virtuale (the web's currency). (it)
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