Amazing
Week! We Saw the Biggest Sale in 5 Years, Another That May Turn Out
to Be Highest Ever Reported + Five More That Hit 6 Figures!
Well, this year has certainly
gotten off on the right foot. In fact, this past week was
probably the most remarkable one we've ever seen for domain
sales. Rick Schwartz made sure it would be something special
when he announced
he sold Porno.com for a whopping $8,888,888! That is
the highest sale reported since 2010 when the biggest cash
sale ever reported - Sex.com at $13 million -
was logged. It is also the fourth highest domain sale reported since
we started tracking and verifying aftermarket sales in 2003 (you can
see our all time Top 20 here).
A day after after Rick's sale to a
Prague-based operator of adult websites was disclosed, George
Hong of domain brokerage Guta.com
noticed that the WhoIs record for 360.com had changed, moving
from previous owner Vodafone to Chinese company QihooTechnology,
who has been operating from 360.cn. After unsuccessfully
trying to buy the domain on behalf of a client for 7 figures George
was told by a trusted source that Vodafone had previously turned down $14
million for the domain. That set off intense speculation on what
the price may have been and today several Chinese media outlets
including TechWeb.cn,
citing anonymous sources at Qihoo, said the company paid $17
million. Another well-known broker with a source at Vodafone, Andrew
Rosener of MediaOptions.com,
said he was also told $17 million was the number.
By
Ron Jackson
Unfortunately, as of this writing, there
has been no official confirmation from Qihoo or Vodafone of
the sale price. With all of the rumors swirling around perhaps that
will change in the next few days. $17 million is certainly well
within Qihoo's means as the company has annual revenues of $7.5
BILLION (that is $7,500 million so $17 million isn't much more
than a rounding error to them).
If they do not report the price paid
before their SEC filing for this quarter is due (Qihoo is a
public company, traded on the NYSE under the symbol QIHU) it
is possible they would release the number in that report. They
wouldn't be required to do due to their size (essentially making the
transaction immaterial to their overall business) but since the deal
also involved a major change for their brand and public presence,
they may want to share the information with their investors.
We certainly hope the number ends up
getting confirmed as it would be a new high water mark for an
all cash domain sale. With the market for short .coms (and
especially short numerics being gobbled up by the Chinese market)
the time is ripe for a new all-time leader to emerge. In a related
note, in the discussion about 360.com, Andrew Rosener said he had
closed a 7-figure deal for 50.com but the exact number
is subject to an NDA.
As if the great news surrounding the
Porno.com and 360.com sales wasn't enough we also have five
six-figure sales on our latest all extension Top
20 Sales Chart. In any other week, those would have been
the center of attention. Three of them were handled by the same
broker - DomainHoldings.com
whiz Tracy Fogarty - who closed #2 Connaught.com for $250,000,
#5 144.com for $110,000 and #6 8788.com for $106,000.
In addition to those Tracy put two other sales in the top ten -
#7 Mobike.com at $47,400 and #9 Kantu.com at $20,000. In
a further sign of just how strong the Chinese market has become, all
of Tracy's sales except Connaught.com were made to Chinese buyers.
Sedo,
as uisual, was right in the think of the action too with their
Senior Broker Dave Evanson nailing down a $120,000
deal for KHC.com. Sedo followed with another home run in #4
Ignite.com at $112,500. Those sales were part of a .com
sweep of the top 14 positions on the leader board (the world's
most popular extension took 17 of 20 places overall).
The other three spots all went to ccTLDs
led by #15 Colour.me, sold by Brands-and-Jingles.com
for $10,259. They also sold #16 (tie) Smarter.me for $10,000.
That left no room for the non .com
gTLDs for the second week in a row. That group has not enjoyed a
good start to 2015 as, once again, no reported sales from that
category reached five figures and we had only ten sales total reported
for that entire group.
Here is how all of the sales leaders
stacked up for the week ending Sunday, Feb. 1:
HealthInsurance Services, Inc
eHealthInsurance Services, Inc
eHealthInsurance Services, Inc
The
DN Journal Top 20
Highest Reported
Domain Sales - Mon. Jan 26, 2015 - Sun. Feb. 1, 2015 (Foreign
currency to U.S. Dollar Conversions Based on Rates in Effect
Feb. 4, 2015)
Domain
Sold For
Where
Sold
1.
Porno.com
$8,888,888
Pvt Sale
2.
Connaught.com
$250,000
DomainHoldings
3.
KHC.com
$120,000
Sedo
4.
Ignite.com
$112,500
Sedo
5.
144.com
$110,000
DomainHoldings
6.
8788.com
$106,000
DomainHoldings
7.
Mobike.com
$47,400
DomainHoldings
8.
Viciniti.com
$36,200
Sedo
9.
Kantu.com
$20,000
DomainHoldings
10.
EveryWear.com
€15,000 = $17,100
Sedo
11.
Wardrobes.com
£9,999 = $15,198
Sedo
12.
Verbierchalets.com
£8,000 = $12,160
Sedo
13.
Habitt.com
$12,000
Sedo
14.
IVGlobal.com
£7,500 = $11,400
Sedo
15.
Colour.me
€8,999 = $10,259
Brands-and-Jingles
16.
tie
Anna.co
$10,000
Sedo
16.
tie
Memorandum.com
$10,000
Sedo
16.
tie
Smarter.me
$10,000
Brands-and-Jingles
16.
tie
Unicloud.com
$10,000
Sedo
20.
StockHero.com
$9,995
Sedo
Keep in mind that these are the highest
value cash only sales that have been reported to us in the
past week. This column is meant to be an educational tool,
not a complete list documenting ALL high
value domain sales. Such a list is impossible to produce
because many sales are kept private at the insistence of
buyers, sellers or both. Our procedure for verifying the
accuracy of domain sales reports is available here.
Sedo led the .com supporting
cast of four-figure sales with Bet789.com at $9,125,
DubaiLiving.com and StateOfInnovation.com at $8,500
each and Bolang.com at $8,000. FotoShooting.com
fetched $7,752, Markland.com made $7,500 and two
others - Refarm.com and XCDS.com - drew $7,000 apiece.
Wegogo.com went for $6,199, ThinTea.com
tacked on $6,000 and Contractive.com captured $5,700.
Ladatcha.com and QuickNurse.com notched $5,500 each and
Euna.com yielded $5,130.
Sedo had 43 more four-figure .com sales ranging
from $2,000 to $5,000 that are listed in the table
below:
Additional
Sedo .com Sales Between $2,000 - $5,000
alyaqout.com
$5,000
iofv.com
$2,580
metafactory.com
$5,000
megaupull.com
$2,568
suoq.com
$5,000
eumeda.com
$2,500
topclick.com
$5,000
football-odds.com
$2,500
miavia.com
$4,800
housr.com
$2,500
comtent.com
$4,446
ipierre.com
$2,500
billmo.com
$4,332
sfmail.com
$2,500
arcady.com
$4,000
matikan.com
$2,469
impressionen.com
$3,990
fulcrumstrategy.com
$2,369
fitforfood.com
$3,900
mymhealth.com
$2,295
freshscreen.com
$3,869
sexlinjen.com
$2,280
cloudage.com
$3,600
valendo.com
$2,244
videohybrid.com
$3,534
estema.com
$2,200
wallofamerica.com
$3,200
doudoule.com
$2,195
spella.com
$3,177
dreamvr.com
$2,000
brandtale.com
$3,000
junior-college.com
$2,000
fmtrade.com
$3,000
lunari.com
$2,000
matguiden.com
$3,000
mlholdings.com
$2,000
zeeem.com
$2,994
skillsengine.com
$2,000
eventro.com
$2,850
taxacr.com
$2,000
nursinghomeabuselawyer.com
$2,800
voneo.com
$2,000
helloproducts.com
$2,650
Elsewhere HuntingMoon.comsold MegaSex.com for $6,000 and SFHybrid.com
for $3,000 and StrategyNaming.com
moved ExoToy.com for $3,000.
Country
Codes
TheccTLDs were led by the
trio of five-figure sales that you saw on the all-extension
leader board above with Colour.me setting the pace with a
$10,529 sale at Brands-and-Jingles.com. The highest sale
in this category that you haven't seen yet is #4 on our latest Country Code Top
20 Sales Chart. That is Einstein.co.uk at $9,120
via Sedo. They also rounded out the first five with #5 AquaGym.de
at $7,410.
Sedo went on to sweep 16 of the 20 chart
entries. Brands-and-Jingles claimed three places with the other opening
going to Golem.eu
for #16 Grolman.eu at $2,849.
Great Britain's
.co.uk won the extension race with five chart entries,
nipping Germany's .de with four. Montenegro's .me
was next with three. Here is how the
country code leaders stacked up for the week ending Sunday, Feb.
1:
Country
Code Top 20 Chart
Highest Reported
Domain Sales - Mon. Jan. 26, 2015 - Sun. Feb. 1, 2015 (Foreign
currency to U.S. Dollar Conversions Based on Rates in Effect
Feb. 4, 2015)
There were dozens of additional four-figure
sales off the chart led by Sedo's sales of Hack.co.uk at $2,052,
Bool.io at $1,999 and Gutschein-Vorlagen.de
at $1,995.
Sedo had 30 more four-figure .com sales ranging
from $1,000 to $1,899 that are listed in the table
below:
Additional
Sedo ccTLD Sales Between $1,000 - $1,899
veracode.co.uk
$1,899
voestalpine.nl
$1,425
dutyfree.eu
$1,839
bor.ch
$1,311
bananas.co
$1,800
middletons.co.uk
$1,216
conferencevenues.co.za
$1,750
mvg.co.uk
$1,200
stadslogistiek.nl
$1,710
adviso.fr
$1,140
stapler-shop.de
$1,710
agilean.de
$1,140
5.pe
$1,653
akties.nl
$1,140
sold.me
$1,600
rughe.it
$1,140
iotanalytics.co.uk
$1,520
schlossgangl.at
$1,140
timeless.co.uk
$1,512
messebau-koeln.de
$1,139
timeless.uk
$1,512
refresh.it
$1,139
bhl.co.za
$1,500
usedcar.in
$1,050
shopmate.in
$1,500
agis.be
$1,025
movienews.co.uk
$1,482
features.io
$1,000
dedications.co.uk
$1,444
luxurylounge.co.uk
$1,000
Golem.eurang up $1,709 each for ePrivacy.eu and MyHair.ch
and another $1,139 for DSGroup.eu.
Back at Brands-and-Jingles.com, ExactlyMe.me
managed $1,500, Colours.me collected $1,139, MyWater.me
sipped $1,001 and BCC.me made $1,000.
If there are country code extensions in our report
that you are not familiar with, you can look up the nation each
extension goes with here.
Non .com gTLDs (.net, .org, .biz,
.info & others, including new gTLDs)
The non
.com gTLDs continued to trail the pack with only ten sales
reported for the entire category this week and none reaching five
figures. YSH.org claimed the pole position on our truncated Non .com gTLD Top
10 Chart (normally a Top 20 list) with a $6,950 sale at
Sedo.
While the new gTLDs have failed to make a
dent in .com's dominance (in fact .coms seem to be getting stronger
than ever) they are making inroads in the non .com gTLD category and
wound up taking four of the ten positions this week with Coastal.cruises
claiming the #2 spot after Phil Harris sold the domain to Viking
River Cruises for $6,000.
Sedo rounded out the first five with #3 WMC.net
at $4,800 and a couple of new gTLDs - #4 FantasySports.word
(handling escrow for a name sold by Chad Wright) and #5 Diagnostic.solutions
at $2,281.
Here's how all of the Non .Com gTLD leaders
stacked up for the week ending Sunday, Feb. 1:
Non
.Com gTLDs Top 10 Sales Chart
Highest Reported
Domain Sales - Mon. Jan. 26, 2015 - Sun. Feb. 1, 2015 (Foreign
currency to U.S. Dollar Conversions Based on Rates in Effect
Feb. 4, 2015)
Now that you're up to date on what happened over the
past week, check out how the leaders stand year to date in all
categories by visiting our Year
To Date Charts page.
*****
As always, we welcome all verifiable sales reports
from companies, private sellers or individuals with knowledge of an
important sale made through any channel. To contribute information and
help make this column better, just drop a note to [email protected].
We truly appreciate the industry leading companies who share their
sales information with us to help everyone in the business get a
handle on current domain values.
Every Wednesday we publish the highest
reported domain name sales for the previous week. On Mondays and
Tuesdays our contributors send us their sales data for the previous
7 days. We then compile that information and write this article to
give you the most comprehensive sales report in the industry.
Editor's Note: If you wish to review
previous Domain
Sales columns, they are available in our Archive.
