BitPass
American company
title: "BitPass" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["payment-systems", "digital-currencies", "companies-based-in-san-mateo,-california", "american-companies-established-in-2002", "failed-financial-technology-companies", "financial-services-companies-established-in-2002", "financial-services-companies-disestablished-in-2007", "retail-companies-established-in-2003", "retail-companies-disestablished-in-2007", "defunct-online-music-stores", "defunct-digital-music-services-or-companies", "2002-establishments-in-california", "defunct-online-companies-of-the-united-states"] description: "American company" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BitPass" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary American company ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox company |"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Bitpass, Inc. |
| logo | |
| type | Private |
| founded | in Mountain View, California, United States |
| defunct | |
| location | San Mateo, California, United States |
| key_people | Kurt Huang, Founder |
| Gyuchang Jun, Founder, CTO | |
| Doug Knopper, CEO | |
| industry | Consumer Internet, |
| Digital content, | |
| Online payments | |
| products | Bitpass buyer account, |
| Bitpass Professional merchant account, | |
| Bitpass Studio merchant account | |
| revenue | undisclosed |
| num_employees | undisclosed |
| homepage | www.bitpass.com |
| :: |
name = Bitpass, Inc.| logo = | type = Private | founded = in Mountain View, California, United States | defunct = | location = San Mateo, California, United States| key_people = Kurt Huang, Founder Gyuchang Jun, Founder, CTO Doug Knopper, CEO| industry = Consumer Internet, Digital content, Online payments| products = Bitpass buyer account, Bitpass Professional merchant account, Bitpass Studio merchant account| revenue = undisclosed| num_employees = undisclosed| homepage = www.bitpass.com
BitPass was an American company that from 2002-2007 that developed an online payment system for digital content and services including micropayments. It was founded in 2002 by Kurt Huang and Gyuchang Jun. One of its best-known projects was the Mperia online music store catering to unsigned artists. The company shut down in 2007.
History
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 by Doug Knopper in November 2005.
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. In late 2004, a second funding round of $11.75 million was announced.
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.
Mperia
::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f2/Mperia_logo.png"] ::
Mperia was an online music store founded in 2003 by BitPass to use the BitPass payment system. Launched by Huang and Joshua Ellis, it was aimed toward allowing independent musicians to sell their music online. Artists could upload their own music directly, and could price their own music, with tracking costing between US$0.25 and US$1.50. No digital rights management features were permitted. Artists kept 70% of each track's revenue.
In 2004, Mperia partnered with CD Baby to sell tracks from CDBaby's catalog.
With the shutdown of BitPass, Mperia also shut down in early 2007.
References
References
- (16 November 2005). [http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2005/11/14/daily30.html?jst=b_ln_hl After a long wait, a new CEO at BitPass], ''San Francisco Business Times''
- Tedeschi, Bob (21 July 2003). [https://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/21/business/e-commerce-report-companies-are-trying-once-again-find-ways-turn-penny-ante.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm 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). [http://www.paloaltoonline.com/weekly/morgue/2004/2004_01_28.bitpass28jd.shtml Innovating bit by bit], ''[[Palo Alto Weekly]]''
- 978-0619217426)
- (19 January 2007). [https://venturebeat.com/2007/01/19/bitpass-croaks-is-this-the-end-of-micropayments/ Bitpass croaks — is this the end of micropayments?], ''[[VentureBeat]]''
- Steve Gordon. (2005). "The Future of the Music Business: How to Succeed with the New Digital Technologies : a Guide for Artists and Entrepreneurs". Backbeat Books.
- link. (2014-10-11)
- "CD Baby Gets Digital with BitPass".
- Vitka, William (20 January 2007). [https://archive.today/20130130132728/http://www.nypost.com/p/blogs/gamereport/item_MFfkEqYiOXBB3n8bTUXyPK Mperia, Bitpass Shutting Down], ''New York Post''
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