Beenz.com Inc, the start-up intent on developing a new currency for the internet, announced yesterday that 192 e-commerce and portal sites have signed to distribute beenz on their web sites, just three months after the company launched its e-trading incentive scheme in London. Charles Cohen, founder and chief technology officer of beenz.com, said new beenz distributors are signing with the company at a rate of 20 per week. There are now 70 million beenz, the company’s virtual currency units, in circulation on the internet, of which roughly half have been seeded for free by Beenz itself.
Among the latest recruits to beenz’ virtual economy are QXL, the London-based internet auction company, and Sporting Life, the UK’s largest sports gambling newspaper. They join a raft of other UK and US-based companies which are offering beenz as an incentive for surfers to visit their sites. Some companies, for instance, send beenz to registered beenz collectors simply as a reward for visiting their sites. Others tie the rewards to participation in competitions, or to the exchange of personal information.
In fact, there is no real restriction on how participating e- tailers may use beenz. The beenz are purchased directly from beenz.com, with one been being equal to one US cent, and passed on to customers as some kind of incentive. These beenz, which cannot be transferred among customers, can only be exchanged for goods and services from other beenz distributors. Companies can also choose to redeem their beenz with beenz.com at the rate of half a cent per been, although most are expected to keep their beenz in circulation, recycling them to attract more customers.
At the moment, Cohen admits, the ambitious virtual currency scheme lacks the endorsement of a household name, such as Amazon.com, that might legitimate beenz in the eyes of consumers and businesses alike. However, Cohen said such announcements are in the pipeline. We’re talking, and don’t mean with just one company. You may see four or five announcements in a few weeks time.
Beenz.com’s early history has already offered some interesting insights in to how to build an alternative currency for the internet age. One lesson has been not to confuse company activities with those of a bank. Beenz.com originally referred to its customer-orientated beenz information service as The Beenz Bank, but was warned by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) of the UK, which was concerned that consumers might believe the company was offering a genuine banking service.
