People inject new words into language constantly. “Tweet” has taken on new meaning thanks to Twitter, while “Retweet” would have meant nothing a decade ago. Yet in that short space of time, this formerly unknown verb cannot only become commonplace but even sell for over $24k.
A dangerous term to own, possibly. Moreover, an interesting question for IP attorneys. What is Twitter’s claim on a word associated exclusively with their brand but perhaps spontaneously and independently invented by their customers — something not covered by the actual Twitter trademark? “Tweet” existed before Twitter.com. But can Retweet be interpreted as applying to anything but that single site?
Also interesting: this domain (along with a site) apparently sold for $250,000 in 2010.
Domain Name | End $ | Domain Name | End $ |
---|---|---|---|
Retweet.com | 24250 | MyPyramid.com | 5476 |
MescaleroApache.com | 4350 | LaRadioDelSur.com | 4050 |
Q22W.com | 3452 | 6Bone.net | 3301 |
Authentik.com | 3300 | NoProp37.com | 3050 |
AnnuityQuotes.com | 2425 | VetOnDemand.com | 2225 |
StatsSheet.com | 2024 | HotelUri.com | 1802 |
GPAS.com | 1800 | IconicDigital.com | 1726 |
ShowMyIPAddress.com | 1691 | Shele.com | 1685 |
MP3SongsZ.com | 1525 | Travelistic.com | 1380 |
82211.com | 1152 | DynamicCreations.com | 1140 |
GamingReport.com | 1126 | TherapyShop.com | 1100 |
KiwiCommons.com | 1085 | ITSourNet.org | 1055 |
Dezz.com | 1025 | Duorou.com | 1025 |
OlafStorbeck.com | 985 | PhimSexPhim.com | 978 |
PawClub.com | 972 | RobotAndFrank-Film.com | 838 |
AARD.net | 827 | 8856.net | 810 |
FeministsForChoice.com | 810 | 69588.com | 810 |
TheChocolateMuffinTree.com | 791 | OffshoreValuation.org | 765 |
AdventureIllinois.com | 765 | WIL.org | 760 |
SundayPlus.com | 710 | Concord-RedCross.org | 710 |
TaxEasy.com | 709 | LAMomsBlog.com | 705 |
FrivPlay.com | 700 | DesistUF.com | 678 |
Writing-EDU.com | 665 | CNOnline.net | 655 |
ShopBarStools.com | 640 | InvestInLand.com | 630 |
AssaBetRiver.org | 625 | XAudioTools.com | 612 |
ProterraOnline.com | 611 | Unbreaded.com | 605 |
RBSL.com | 565 | Taxup.com | 560 |
ClickStudio.com | 551 | BetrayalBroadway.com | 547 |
CenturyRealEstate.com | 545 | LimitV.org | 537 |
MarijuanaGiftCard.com | 536 | MaillardVilleManor.com | 536 |
Consegna.com | 535 | PVTMurphy.com | 535 |
AfricanBootyHunter.com | 525 | AeroTranscription.com | 525 |
KXBB.com | 521 | 7ZT.com | 520 |
MappingInteractivo.com | 510 | ThinkFilmCompany.com | 510 |
9RB.com | 507 | MyVMarks.com | 504 |
USZipCode.com | 493 | CentralVirginia.net | 490 |
AllenSamuels.net | 485 | Sharek961.org | 476 |
TVTelugu.com | 466 | FamilyTravelGuides.com | 465 |
JDLInsurance.com | 465 | PortlandSpaces.net | 455 |
WatsekaCity.com | 455 | OER-Europe.net | 450 |
SamoaRugbyUnion.ws | 430 | RapidCite.com | 420 |
MSSalesSpecialist.com | 420 | RLAN.com | 416 |
YSEC.org | 415 | DiscountAnabolics.com | 415 |
SimpleForum.net | 406 | JuegosDeSpiderman.com | 405 |
VietMaker.com | 405 | BitterLemons-API.org | 405 |
TL0.com | 399 | MonsantoMarch.org | 396 |
MataraWeb.info | 396 | H6B.com | 390 |
CareForMich.com | 381 | TongueDrum.com | 375 |
InsuranceSale.com | 365 | Games321.net | 360 |
CarnegieRoom.org | 360 | UltimateGameChair.com | 355 |
ScubaHerald.com | 355 | Bethaderech.com | 355 |
0989.net | 350 | TouristPackages.com | 325 |
AutoCon2013.com | 322 | TeenFashionista.com | 320 |
ParadiseLostPerformances.com | 314 | NewWest.org | 306 |
ThatLucky.com | 300 | PlantsAtWork.org | 295 |
888177.com | 280 | VJJV.com | 266 |
BloatedGoat.com | 257 | TheWoodenSpoon.com | 256 |
ParaGuard.com | 251 | BetterWay.org | 249 |
PuertasElectricas.com | 229 | Biz2Consumer.com | 180 |
FoodieCulture.com | 130 | Todo-Gratis.com | 115 |
288821.com | 106 | 888985.com | 105 |
AgesAgo.com | 76 | StupidRumors.com | 72 |
A Native American tribe, the Mescalero Apache, contributed the third highest GoDaddy expired sale from the list above. Next comes La Radio Del Sur, which is the name of a Spanish-language radio station, founded 4 years ago in Venezuela to “generate a battle of ideas in the struggle against capitalism and the commercialization of ideas” (my translation).
Controversial stuff, eh? It doesn’t stop there. $3k was spent on NoProp37.com, in reference to California’s “Mandatory Labeling of Genetically Enginered Food Initiative“. This dates back to 2012. Since political activism leads to backlinks, I’m guessing some of the bidding was motivated not by present-day politics but by SEO. The same reasoning applies to MonsantoMarch.org (about $400) — Monsanto being a multinational agrochemical and biotech corporation frequently the target of protests.
Domaining is truly international. HotelUri.com refers to Uri, Switzerland. KiwiCommons.com would be New Zealand. VietMaker.com, Vietnam. SamoaRugbyUnion.ws is the only .WS sale I’ve ever seen that actually applies to Western Samoa. And TVTelugu.com refers to Telugu, one of India’s many many languages. You’ve probably never heard of this language, but it’s spoken by 75 million people — greater than the population of France, Thailand, Italy, or the UK.
PawClub.com and InvestInLand.com are interesting purchases in light of the .CLUB and .LAND extensions introduced during the past few months. So is NewspapersToday.com (with respect to .TODAY), which is in the list for next week.
NameJet scored a sale bigger than GoDaddy’s $24k Retweet.com with a $30k LLL.com. Its next two $15.5k sales total as much again. No surprise. There are a staggering number of end users for Sanko.com — in Japan, Thailand, Turkey, and the USA.
Domain Name | End $ | Domain Name | End $ |
---|---|---|---|
XCW.com | 30100 | Gainer.com | 15600 |
Sanko.com | 15400 | H55.com | 8680 |
Rations.com | 7969 | PowerIt.com | 5088 |
Triune.com | 2911 | Ration.com | 2510 |
85b.com | 2099 | MedicalInfo.com | 1920 |
DCRF.com | 1500 | MVC.net | 1407 |
SpecialTech.com | 1206 | DogAcademy.com | 1151 |
WorldHistoryCompass.com | 1110 | TheMarsVolta.com | 1012 |
KEIA.com | 1000 | Spoofy.com | 900 |
DiscountShirts.com | 815 | Ecosy.org | 760 |
SpaceMatters.com | 585 | NoLimits.org | 560 |
Vanderryn.com | 540 | RubyRake.org | 520 |
JubileeResearch.org | 510 | MaineCSHP.com | 510 |
BEIP.com | 510 | Maratonasant-Antonio.com | 510 |
It’s interesting to see the price difference between Rations.com ($8k for the customary plural noun) and Ration.com ($2.5k for the corresponding verb or infrequently used singular noun). Both domains had the same high bidder.
Here’s a miscellaneous list of expired domains for next week:
Domain Name | Venue | Domain Name | Venue |
---|---|---|---|
Adaptar.com | NJ Pre | AZWA.com | GD |
BusinessIndia.com | GD | DAJ.net | NJ Pre |
DOTB.com | GD | FANY.com | NJ Pre |
ForexGenius.com | GD | FreedomIsNotFree.com | GD |
HAUT.com | NJ Pre | HealthyHorizons.com | GD |
IGetPaid.com | NJ Pre | IndiaTrading.com | GD |
NameLine.com | GD | NewspapersToday.com | GD |
NoDomains.com | NJ Pre | Patris.com | NJ Pre |
RentalConnection.com | GD | ResidentAlien.com | NJ Pre |
ScientistBlog.com | NJ Pre | StreetPro.com | NJ Pre |
UnlimitedTravel.com | GD | VIDE.net | NJ Pre |
FreedomIsNotFree.com continues the theme of political activism. I must have heard this phrase 10,000 times, but it doesn’t become less true through repetition. “Haut” is French for “high”, “upper”, “lofty”, “top”.
redomains says
twitter provides some terms under which they allow the tweet in domain names, some would say they dont have the right to even do that but youll find it under their terms of service….
Naming applications, products, or domains
Do:
Name your website, product, or application with something unique.
Don’t:
Use Twitter in the name of your website, application or product.
Use just “Tweet” or “Tweet” with a simple letter or number combination (for example, 1Tweet, Tweet, Tweets).
Register a domain containing “twitter”, misspellings, transliterations or similar variations thereof.
Apply for a trademark with a name including “Twitter”, “Tweet”, the Twitter bird, transliterations or similar variations thereof.
Use “Tweet” in the name of your application if used with any other service.
Joseph Peterson says
Thanks. I wasn’t aware of Twitter’s policy. In that case, with no risk of a UDRP, Retweet.com should prove a good buy.
I’d say this is a very smart marketing plan Twitter has laid out, since they encourage others to brand themselves with Twitter-specific terminology. Consequently, those other websites or apps will remain Twitter satellites unless they change their names. When a new social platform emerges, it will be that much harder for Twitter spinoffs to escape the gravity of “Tweet”.
confer says
~~ “Haut” is French for ‘high’, ‘upper’, ‘lofty’, ‘top’ ~~
In that same ‘expired domains for next week’ list, you’ll also find:
“Vide” which is French for ’empty’, ‘hollow’, ‘void’ or ‘blank’.
ChuckWagen says
‘Empty’, ‘hollow’, ‘void’… sounds more like Hollywood?
Joseph Peterson says
P.S. To give credit where credit is due, Andrew Allemann pointed out the previous sale on Retweet.com. Pretty sure I was underwater at the time.
accent says
Joseph-
I think you have mis-read the policy. The “Use just Tweet or Tweet with a simple letter …” part is actually connected to the “Don’t” heading, they are not saying instead of Twitter “just” use “Tweet”.
They are claiming everything in sight.
redomains says
i disagree accent, absent the fact that that rent the arbiter of what “is” or is not right, at least in their mind they are saying do be a TWEET1.com so your a complete twitter lookalike…buy i think they do make room for tweet+word or word+tweet
domain investor says
ya i saw twittly.com sold for 1k at godaddy it was quite cheap.
sean@similarto says
There are countless sites with tweet+”someword”. such as tweethawk.com etc. Had it been prohibited twitter would haven’t allowed such domains to exist.
Sam Torres says
People are really trying to make a buck from these auctions, but what they don’t know is that getting a nice domain doesn’t necessarily means that you will have the luck to solidify the brand and get the customers you need.