The 25 most expensive domain names in history, only one of the top 10 is in the country
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There are always amazing antiques in the American treasure appraisal program "Antique Roadshow", and many of them are of amazing value, such as a Joseph Kleitsch oil painting, which was assessed to be worth up to $500,000 in New York in 2014, while this oil painting was only sold for $100 in 1925.
Antiques have become extremely valuable due to their age and scarcity, and many precious domain names are as valuable as antiques, and these domain names are usually extremely scarce, such as industry domain names of certain specific industries, and very few short domain names.
On some foreign platforms, such as DN and Sedo, there are often hundreds of thousands or even millions of domain name transaction reports, and there are also many domain names whose transaction amounts are not disclosed because of the signing of confidentiality agreements. Even so, from the domain name sales records that have been made public, we can still roughly understand the development of the domain name market over the years.
According to public sales records, the most expensive domain name in the entire domain name market has ever sold for $872 million, and this domain name is Cars.com.
In October 2014, Gannet Co., Inc. spent $1.83 billion to acquire the remaining 73% of the shares of the American automobile website Cars.com. Among them, the valuation of the "car" domain name Cars.com alone reached $872 million, equivalent to about 5.5 billion yuan. The documents of the US Securities and Exchange Commission disclosed the amount of this transaction.
Recently, the well-known foreign domain name registrar GoDaddy has made public another set of data, which is the top 25 domain name sales prices that have been made public over the years. Let's take a look at how amazing their value is!
1. CarInsurance.com - $49.7 million, sold in 2010
The domain name was registered in August 1995. In November 2010, the American Internet company Quinstreet acquired the car insurance website and domain name CarInsurance.com for a huge sum of $49.7 million (about 339 million yuan).
2. Insurance.com - $35.6 million, sold in 2010
The domain was registered in June 1994. In August 2010, Quinstreet, an American online advertising company, held a conference call to announce that it had acquired the Insurance.com domain for a total price of $36.5 million (about 250 million yuan). It is reported that Quinstreet used part of its cash, stocks and options for this acquisition; the company also bought the insurance.com domain for $16 million in 2009.
Currently, Insurance.com is still the domain name of Quinstreet's auto insurance business website.
3. VacationRentals.com - $35 million, sold in 2007
The domain was registered in May 1997. Brian Sharpless, the founder of the American vacation home rental website HomeAway, spent $35 million to buy the domain name VacationRentals.com in 2007.
4. PrivateJet.com - $30.18 million, sold in 2012
The domain was registered in August 1996 and sold for a staggering $30.18 million in 2012. The domain literally means "private jet" in Chinese, and the website has not yet been used.
5. Internet.com - $18 million, sold in 2009
The domain was registered in May 1997 and means "network, Internet". In August 2009, the domain was sold for $18 million. Currently, visiting the domain opens a website that provides Internet services.
6. 360.com - $17 million, sold in 2015
The domain was registered in March 2000. Beijing Qihoo 360 spent $17 million (over 110 million yuan) to acquire the domain from foreign telecom operator Vodafone in February 2015. According to people familiar with the matter, an investor and Vodafone had negotiated for three years on 360.com, and the other party rejected a bid of 14 million US dollars.
Qihoo spared no effort in protecting domain names, and almost did not let go of any domain names related to the brand. Even though it owned 360.cn, it still spent a lot of money to acquire the .com domain name. The current domain name 360.com is set to jump to 360.cn.
7. Insure.com - 16 million US dollars, sold in 2009
The domain name was registered in November 1994 and means "insurance". In October 2009, the domain name Insure.com was sold at a high price of 16 million US dollars (more than 100 million yuan), and the buyer was the American online advertising company Quinstreet. What's more interesting is that the domain name was changed hands in 2001 for less than 1.6 million US dollars.
8. Fund.com - 9.99 million pounds, sold in 2008
The domain name was registered in September 1994. In 2008, the domain name Fund.com (fund, reserve) was acquired by a New York listed company FUND.COM, INC. for 9.99 million pounds. It was used to build a website to promote financial products. Currently, visiting the domain name Fund.com opens the introduction information about FUND.COM, INC.
9. Sex.com - 14 million US dollars, sold in 2006
The domain name was registered in October 1995 and has the meaning of "sex, gender, attraction". In 2006, the owner of the domain name sex.com, Boston adult entertainment company Escom, declared bankruptcy. The domain name was sold for 14 million US dollars in the same year. The buyer was the American publisher Escom, which mainly engages in publishing. The publications include textbooks, exercise books and examination guides. The readers are mainly junior and senior high school students.
10. Sex.com - $13 million, sold in 2010
In 2010, the domain name Sex.com appeared again in the domain name market and was sold at a price of $13 million. The buyer was Clover Holdings Co., Ltd.
11. Hotels.com - $11 million, sold in 2001
The domain name was registered in March 1994 and has the meaning of "hotel, inn, guesthouse". In 2001, the domain name Hotels.com was sold for nearly $11 million. Currently, visiting the Hotels.com domain name opens "Haodian.com", which is the world's leading hotel accommodation service provider, providing travelers with a wealth of online booking options, including hundreds of thousands of independent hotels, large hotel chains and self-service hotels around the world.
12. Porn.com - $9.5 million, sold in 2007
The domain was registered in August 1995 and means "pornographic works". It was traded in 2007 for $9.5 million in pure cash. The domain has the meaning of "pornography", and the meaning is intuitive, easy to understand and easy to remember. In a 2012 .com domain name transaction report, the domain name Porn.com also won the "honor" of the most profitable .com domain name of the year.
13. Shoes.com - $9 million, sold in 2017
The domain was registered in November 1994 and means "shoes, horseshoes, brakes" and so on. In 2014, Brown Shoes of the United States sold the shoes.com website to Canadian Shoeme Company; in February 2017, the website was reported to be closed; in April 2017, it was reported that shoebuy, a shoe e-commerce company under Walmart, acquired the domain name shoes.com. According to George Kirikos, an overseas domain name investor, court documents show that Walmart acquired the domain name shoes.com for US$9 million (about RMB 60.28 million).
14. Porno.com - US$888,8888, sold in 2015
The domain name was registered in March 1999. In February 2015, the domain name was sold through the overseas platform Escrow.com for a price of US$888,8888 (about RMB 55.62 million). Porno.com means "pornographic literature, pornographic books and periodicals", and the seller is the domain name king Rick Schwartz.
15. FB.com - $8.5 million, sold in 2010
This domain name was registered in May 1990. The internationally renowned social networking giant Facebook successfully acquired the domain name FB.com in November 2010. Then in 2011, the transaction price of the domain name was exposed, as high as $8.5 million.
16. WE.com - $8 million, sold in 2015
This domain name was registered in March 1992. In June 2015, the domestic terminal Renrendai spent $8 million (about 50 million yuan) to acquire WE.com and build the WE financial management platform, becoming the most expensive 2-letter domain name in China at that time. The domain name can be translated as "we", and it is homophonic with "micro", and the characters are short and easy to remember. It has to be said that Renrendai is really willing to spend money to enhance its brand image.
17. Business.com - $7.5 million, sold in 1999
eCompanies purchased and used this domain name for $7.5 million in 1999. The website mainly deals with professional finance and business yellow pages. What is dramatic is that the domain name was bought by small businessman Mark Ostrov in 1996 for $150,000 (a sky-high price at the time), and it appreciated to $7.5 million amid cynicism.
18. Diamond.com - $7.5 million, sold in 2006
This domain name means "diamond". In 2006, the e-commerce website Odimo.com transferred it to another jewelry e-commerce website Ice.com for $7.5 million. Noble and luxurious pearls and gemstones are loved by women, and jewelry domain names are the favorites of the jewelry industry. The diamond domain name diamond.com became the most valuable domain name in the jewelry industry with a price of $7.5 million, and a diamond website has now been built.
19. Beer.com - $7 million, sold in 1999
The domain name was registered in December 1993 and means "beer". It was acquired by Interbrew, the largest beer brewer in Belgium, for $7 million in 1999. Interestingly, Beer.com was once used by a male entertainment website, and the domain name is currently on sale.
20. Z.com - $6.8 million
In November 2014, Japanese Internet giant GMO spent 800 million yen, about $6,784,000 (about 41.58 million yuan) to acquire the single-letter domain name Z.com. There are only 26 single-letter .com domain names in the world, and only Z.com, Q.com and X.com are currently open for registration. The related domain name z.cn jumps to Amazon China's official website Amazon.cn.
21. iCloud.com - $6 million, sold in 2011
In April 2011, Apple acquired the cloud computing domain name iCloud.com from Swedish IT service provider Xcerion for $6 million; in July of the same year, Apple enabled the domain name to redirect to the Apple icloud page. Since then, Apple has also successively purchased related domain names icloud.org and icloud.net/.com.cn/.tv/.eu.
22. Israel.com - $5.88 million, sold in 2008
The domain name was sold at an auction price of $5.88 million in 2008. The domain name was registered by American Jew Joel Noel-Friedman in 1994.
23. Casino.com - $5.5 million
The domain name was acquired by Onisac, which is registered in Gibraltar, for $5.5 million in 2003. Casino.com means "casino", which directly refers to the gambling industry, and its value is naturally high.
24. Slots.com - $5.5 million, sold in 2010
In June 2010, Calvin Ayre, founder of online gambling company Bodogbrand, participated in the online auction of the Slots.com domain name in a bar in London, and finally bought the "slot machine" domain name Slots.com for about $5.5 million.
25. Toys.com - $5.1 million, sold in 2009
In 2009, the American toy retailer ToysRus bought the domain name Toys.com for $5.1 million. As the largest toy retailer in the United States, the original domain name of ToysRus's official website was Toysrus.com, and the domain name Toys.com just means "toys". Toys "R" Us's acquisition of this domain name is extremely beneficial to its business development, and the domain name has now been officially launched.
Domain names are the cornerstone of the Internet era. In addition to their value in transactions, gifts, and collections, they are also the embodiment of a company's brand on the Internet. A good domain name is like a golden signboard, allowing users to find the website they want to visit in the vast ocean of the Internet. In addition to the convenience of user access, domain names can also bring benefits to companies that are difficult to measure with money.
The above 25 most expensive domain names in history include personal transactions and terminal acquisitions, and the industries covered include finance, clothing, the Internet, e-commerce, insurance, gambling and other fields. Each domain name is a rare and scarce domain name with amazing value, even more expensive than some antiques.
Domaincn.com Committed to providing fair and transparent reports. This article aims to provide accurate and timely information, but should not be construed as financial or investment advice. Due to the rapidly changing market conditions, we recommend that you verify the information yourself and consult a professional before making any decisions based on this information.