Kozmo.com
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Kozmo.com | |
 |
|
| Type of Company | Defunct |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1998 |
| Headquarters | New York |
| Key people | Joseph Park Yong Kang |
| Industry | Retail |
| Products | Online store, delivery service |
| Slogan | We'll be right over. |
Kozmo.com was a venture-capital-driven online company that promised free one-hour delivery of anything from DVD rentals to Starbucks coffee. It was founded by young investment bankers Joseph Park and Yong Kang in March 1998 in New York City. The company is often referred to as an example of the dot-com excess.
Kozmo promoted an incredible business model; it promised to deliver small goods free of charge. The company raised about $280 million, including $60 million from Amazon.com. The business model was criticized by some business analysts, who pointed out that one-hour point-to-point delivery of small objects is extremely expensive and there was no way Kozmo could make a profit as long as it refused to charge delivery fees. The company countered in part that, in their target markets, savings due to not needing to rent space for retail stores would exceed the costs of delivery.
In July 2000, it operated in Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, Boston, New York, Washington, San Diego and Los Angeles. [1] Its headquarters were located in New York City. It entered a five-year co-marketing agreement with Starbucks in February 2000, in which it agreed to pay Starbucks $150 million to promote its services inside the company's coffee shops. Kozmo.com ended its deal in March 2001 after paying out $15 million.
The company failed soon after the collapse of the dot-com bubble, laying off its staff of 1,100 employees and shutting down in April 2001. 18 locations nationwide and their Memphis distribution center were liquidated by a veteran entertainment wholesaler from Florida.
Although Kozmo filed an IPO with Credit Suisse First Boston, it never went public.
The documentary film e-Dreams (2001) portrays the fate of the company.
In April 2005, former CTO Chris Siragusa launched a similar service in downtown Manhattan specializing in the delivery of food, wine, DVDs and essentials called MaxDelivery. MaxDelivery is still in business with expansion plans in 2007.
[edit] See also
- Dot-com company
- Webvan online grocer
- Urbanfetch
- Zifty a Kozmo like service in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
[edit] External links
- Archived versions of kozmo.com at the Internet Archive (to see the website, look for archives dated before June 1, 2001).
- Anatomy of a Dot-ComSupply Chain Management Review, November 1, 2001 (Great in-depth look from the inside by John Wu, who was the VP of Logistics at Kozmo)
- Kozmo to shut down, lay off 1,100 News.com, April 11, 2001
- Kozmo may deliver itself to the public February 29, 2000 News.com, a scoop article that disclosed Kozmo's IPO plan.
- Kozmo.com sees more sales in Starbucks deal News.com, February 14, 2000
- Diapers Revive Dead Dot-Com, Wired, July 13, 2005
