Editing Boo.com (section)

{{Short description|British eCommerce business}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2022}}
{{Infobox company
| logo = Boo-com.png
| type = [[Naamloze Vennootschap|Dutch NV]]<br />(Disestablished in 2000)
| defunct      = {{end date|2000}}
| key_people   = Ernst Malmsten<br />Kajsa Leander<br />Patrik Hedelin
| industry     = [[retail]]
| products     = [[clothing]], [[cosmetics]]
| foundation   = {{start date and age|1999|3|17|df=y}}<ref>{{cite web|url=http://whois.domaintools.com/boo.com|title=Boo.com WHOIS, DNS, & Domain Info – DomainTools|work=[[WHOIS]]|accessdate=2016-08-05}}</ref>
| location     = [[London]], England
| homepage     = [https://web.archive.org/*/http://www.boo.com Boo.com] (Domain now owned by Hostelworld)
}}

'''Boo.com''' was a short-lived British [[e-commerce]] business, founded in 1998 by [[Swedes]] Ernst Malmsten, Kajsa Leander and Patrik Hedelin, who were regarded as sophisticated Internet entrepreneurs in Europe{{Citation needed|reason=Malmsten & Leander were most certainly _not_ 'sophisicated Internet entrepreneurs' even by Malmstens own account in 'Boo hoo'|date=February 2025}} by the investors because they had created an online bookstore named [[Bokus]].com, the third largest book e-retailer (in 1997), before founding boo.com.<ref name="Boo Introduction addition">{{cite book|last1=Chaffey|first1=Dave|last2=Ellis-Chadwick|first2=Fiona|title=Digital Marketing Strategy, Implementation and Practice|date=2016|publisher=Pearson Education Limited|location=Harlow|isbn=978-1-292-07761-1|page=108|edition=sixth}}</ref><ref name="Wray" />

After several highly publicized delays, Boo.com launched in the autumn of 1999 selling branded fashion apparel over the [[Internet]]. The company spent $135 million of [[venture capital]] in just 18 months,<ref name="boohoo">{{cite book|title=Boo Hoo: A dot.com Story from Concept to Catastrophe|last1=Malmsten|first1=Ernst|publisher=Random House Business Books|year=2001|isbn=978-0-7126-7239-9}}<!--| accessdate = 2010-07-07 --></ref> and it was placed into [[receivership]] on 18 May 2000 and [[liquidated]].

In June 2008, [[CNET]] hailed Boo.com as one of the greatest dot-com busts in history.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://crave.cnet.co.uk/gadgets/the-greatest-defunct-web-sites-and-dotcom-disasters-49296926/|title=The greatest defunct Web sites and dotcom disasters|publisher=[[CNET]]|date=5 June 2008|accessdate=2008-06-05|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130226015839/http://crave.cnet.co.uk/gadgets/the-greatest-defunct-web-sites-and-dotcom-disasters-49296926/|archive-date=26 February 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Ernst Malmsten wrote about the experience in a book called ''Boo Hoo: A dot.com Story from Concept to Catastrophe'', published in 2001.<ref name='boohoo'/>