// startup autopsy

BitPass

Micropayments before the world was ready

timingSlow Death

Years-long decline before final shutdown · Fatal mistake: BitPass bet on consumer willingness to pre-load digital wallets for micropayments a decade before mobile payment habits normalized.

Founded	2002
Closed	2007
Country	USA
Sector	Fintech

50%

Key Events Timeline

2002-01-01

FOUNDING

BitPass founded with vision of enabling micropayments for online digital content creators.

2003-06-01

PRODUCT LAUNCH

BitPass launches public micropayment platform; Scott McCloud's online comics serve as launch showcase.

2004-03-01

FUNDING

Raises funding bringing total to $13.3M; investor confidence high in digital content monetization thesis.

2006-06-01

PIVOT

Attempts to pivot toward business content and B2B use cases as consumer wallet adoption stagnates.

2007-01-01

SHUTDOWN

BitPass shuts down operations, citing inability to achieve critical mass in consumer micropayment adoption.

Full Analysis

Analyst plan

Documented cause

BitPass was an online micropayment platform designed to enable digital content creators and publishers to charge small fees for their content before widespread adoption of subscription models. The company faile...

d due to fundamental market timing and competitive pressures. BitPass attempted to establish a new payment wallet system when users already had entrenched payment methods through PayPal and credit car

Verified lesson

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€33.3M

Peak valuation

HypeCycle · MoatType · ResearchTags

BitPass raised €13.3M before bitpass bet on consumer willingness to pre-load digital wallets for micropayments a decade before mobile payment habits normalized. ended it. See the documented cause, verified lesson and all failure signals.

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