April 25, 2012A European company, Beenz Europe BV, has purchased the domain name Beenz.com for $20,000 and placed a “coming soon” page on the web site. The domain purchase was made through domain aftermarket Afternic.com. Beenz.com was one of the most spectacular dot.com failures to lose its, um, beenz in the dot.com bust last decade.
Beenz rewarded web surfers with a virtual currency called beenz when they did things like visit certain web sites, by things online, etc. These beenz could then be cashed in for merchandise at various online retailers.
After raising nearly $100 million in venture capital, the company wound down operations in the bust. The purchaser of its assets let the Beenz.com domain name expire and the domain transferred owners multiple times after that prior to the recent sale. (The fate of rival Flooz and its domain name Flooz.com has been similar. It’s currently parked.)