Boo.com
Building a 3D virtual dressing room in 1999 when most users had 56K modems was peak dot-com hubris.
1998 → 2000
$135M
E-commerce/Fashion
UK
IdeaProof AI Failure Score
What Happened: The Timeline
1998
Boo.com founded in London
1999
Raises $135M, launches 3D shopping experience
2000
Site too slow for dial-up, burns through all cash
May 2000
Liquidated after 18 months
Root Causes
Boo.com was a luxury fashion e-commerce site that spent $135M in just 18 months trying to create a cutting-edge online shopping experience. The site featured a 3D model named Miss Boo that users could dress in clothes—except the site took forever to load on late-1990s internet connections. The company launched in 18 countries simultaneously with massive overhead. By May 2000, Boo.com was liquidated, having burned through all its funding in record time.
Sources & References
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