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BitPass was an American company from 2002-2007 that developed an online payment system for digital content and services including micropayments. One of its best known projects was the Mperia online music store catering to unsigned artists. ==Background== Kurt Huang and Gyuchang Jun founded BitPass. Michael O'Donnell was brought on as CEO in 2004, but left by April 2005, and was eventually replaced Doug Knopper in November, 2005.〔(16 November 2005). (After a long wait, a new CEO at BitPass ), ''San Francisco Business Times''〕 Although the origins of the idea for the company dated back to 1999, the company incorporated and got off the ground with $1.5 million in joint venture funding led by Garage Technology Ventures in late 2002. The first test version of the product was launched in June 2003.〔Tedeschi, Bob (21 July 2003). (E-Commerce Report; Companies are trying once again to find ways to turn penny-ante charges for Web viewing into profits ), ''The New York Times''〕〔White, Elizabeth (28 January 2004). (Innovating bit by bit ), ''Palo Alto Weekly''〕 In late 2004, a second funding round of $11.75 million was announced.〔Napier, H. Albert, et al. (Creating a winning E-business ), p. 171-72 (2d ed. 2006) (ISBN 978-0619217426)〕 For the content buyer, Bitpass worked like a pre-paid telephone card: the buyer signed up for the service and put money into an account using a credit card or PayPal. This stored-value amount could be used to purchase digital content or services. Transaction fees were paid by the content provider. For payments under $5, the charge was 15% of the price paid by the buyer (Bitpass Professional merchant account fee). BitPass also partnered with major technology and financial services companies such as Microsoft, PayPal, the Royal Bank of Scotland and First Data. On January 19, 2007 Bitpass announced that they were shutting down, and operations officially closed on January 26, 2007.〔〔(19 January 2007). (Bitpass croaks — is this the end of micropayments? ), ''VentureBeat''〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「BitPass」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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