Boo.com, the fashion site that was Europe’s biggest dotcom flop, is coming back like some Night of the Living Dead zombie; but this time its business plan is less scary.
Boo relaunches today as a travel website that combines search, booking capabilities and Web 2.0 social networking.
Its parent, Web Reservations International is keen to stress that the new owner is nothing like the old Boo as it generated 300m euros in bookings in 2006 and 19m in profits. At the same time, it is playing on the notoriety of the Boo.com domain to give its site a launch boost.
WRI acquired the domain from fashionmall.com some time ago, according to its PR company, although fashionmall’s website was today still displaying the boo.com logo, with the unfortunate tagline "Style never dies".
Boo died gruesomely in 2000 after burning through $120m in six months. It occupied expensive Carnaby Street offices, its executives, including former Swedish model Kajsa Leander, lived large and its website featured 3D imagery, Flash technology and a Miss Boo avatar that was way above the capabilities of most users’ internet connections in 1999.
Fashionmall appears to have done little with the boo.com domain and relaunches touted in 2000 and 2006 never happened.
Even with its new Web 2.0 clothing, it remains hard to see how WRI can transform Boo’s image from being one of the Top Ten dotcom flops of all time. Read more