Why are .me domain auctions going so high? And why so many trademark domains?
Auctions for .me domain names continue, but we’ve already seen some eye popping sales. Even more peculiar is the number of trademarks going for big dollars.
Toyota.me is the big one you’ve been reading about. It sold for $90,025. The whois record for Toyota.com Toyota.me now shows a Brazilian man Georg Kohler as the owner. I hope he has some sort of connection to the car company or another brand called “Toyota”. Kohler also picked up Porsche.me. Maybe he owns a car dealership? I’m baffled that someone would spend close to six figures on a name they will likely lose in a trademark dispute. Even stranger is that someone else bid the price up along with the buyer. What’s the missing link here?
The second highest domain to sell is Oglasi.me. It means something in another language, and there’s a portal at Oglasi.com. Other big sales include:
only.me $33,405
aweso.me $24,189
skoda.me $20,010
brand.me $18,540
lasvegas.me $15,105
chatwith.me $15,035
korea.me $15,015
solve.me $13,116
volu.me $10,605
china.me $10,565
picture.me $10,240
recruit.me $10,155
baidu.me $10,005
onlinecasino.me $10,005
tag.me $10,005
secure.me $10,005
dna.me $10,004
Baidu.me may also be considered a trademark. The whois record for that domain isn’t activated yet.
Some trademark holders are getting their domains through auction. For example, Tyco picked up Tyco.me for $2,000
There are some other domains currently on auction that also pose risks. Facebook.me is at $4,015, Kia.me is $1,611 (this could be generic depending on how it’s used), and MacWolrd.me is $75.
This just goes to show that the new domain extensions that may be coming onto market over the next couple years will be a nice boost for trademark lawyers.
Here are some of the active auctions that are attracting lots of attention:
insure.me $50,005
match.me $17,755
hug.me $17,105
elevate.me $12,080
rank.me $12,015
The power of dotcom…your 2nd para mentions “The whois record for Toyota.com now shows…” 🙂
1. “The whois record for Toyota.com now shows a Brazilian man Georg Kohler as the owner.”
Should be toyota.me
2. They say the opposite of love is not hate, it is indifference.
I am indifferent to .me.
I think it is a safe predition to say that all of the above buyers will lose money on their speculation of .me.
And, let’s not kid ourselves… any money spent on .me is speculation, not investment.
You have to conclude these are uneducated buyers. The legal precedents are clear on TM infringement.
What it is is fake bids. Just a few college buddies fooling around.
No one who could write a $90k check would ever blow it on such a loser domain.
Thanks for pointing out the .com mistake guys.
Rob, the bidder of Toyota.me certainly wasn’t a college student messing around since he forked over the money. But some of the others probably are fake.
I think we need to be a little level headed about these new extensions. Yes indeed a lot of them are highly speculative, however look at it from a risk arbitrage perspective and you might actually see some value.
It’s important to realize, when the internet first got going, most people outside the united states hardly participated because they either did not understand what was happening, were cynical or simply did not have the opportunity.
Therefore most .com names were scooped up mostly by anglo-saxons in general. Fifteen years later, an investor with deep pockets in say a country like Brazil, may actually see .Me for instance as an excellent opportunity to acquire premium names that at the very least, could have search engine ranking or promote an established site.
Infact, I would bet an American concern may actually look at it in the same way and speculate wisely.
I may have Fund.me for instance and while it would not fetch me $10 million like the .com, who is to say a fund management concern in Brazil may not be willing to pay $1 million?
Rick Latona I imagine realizes this sort of thing, which is why he suggested he would be willing to become an ICANN registrar for some of those uncanny extension due in 2010 or whenever. He’s a very agressive marketeer and quite a successful one! I bet you, he could re-sell premium .Me domains if given the opportunity.
Lets not forget, there is a massive world out there of 7 billion people and these people will probably buy whatever makes sense to them as and when and as the global internet evolves.
My suggestion, don’t write off .Me entirely just yet!
Just thought that I’d let you know that I came across a .me “play-on-words” competition where you can win free domain reg and hosting at http://www.lcn.com/me_domain_registration
Good Luck And Enjoy! It’s free to enter… not $90,025 😉
Not biting.
.ME is a fad
Considering just the first page of closed auctions for .me exceeds $500,000, there’s a number of people with deep pockets who don’t think it’s a fad.
I registered 5 .me domains. I think that these domains will be easy to remember in the future, with more and more domains being purchased.
I purchased:
SeoPro.me
CasinoPro.me
DomainPro.me
BlogPro.me
ProWebDesign.me
X.tre.me
No fad its going gangbusters for visits and is only parked at Sedo for now. Wait till Apple throw their new .me’s up. In 2 years time with all new coy TLDs the public is gonna get used to other than .com. Gen I is cool with other than .com and their the ones with the buying power for the future..
Gary, there was a lot of confusion about this. Apple bought me.com, not .me. They’re promoting me.com.
Is .me bound by UDRP?
Andrew. Re Apple. Yep, your right. Apple did buy me.com however rumour is that they are using it as launch for ipod.me, itunes.me, apple.me and mac.me all of which they registered pre .me landrush with trademark rights. Interesting to see what they do considering Jobs commented last month about the “i” generation morphing into the new “me” generation. We’ll see soon enough I guess..
This is what I keep on saying…diverify! Even it means buying just a few .me names to speculate. Why would a Fund Manager want to hold just US equities or US dollars, he would want to diversify into emerging markets to maximize returns. Far too many domainers are obsessed with .com, every asset class including property has asset diversification. It is very interesting to see what appears to be happening with .Me already. I had no idea Apple had any interest in .me, after reading what Gary just said above, imagine iPhone.me …wow!! it makes perfect sense!
I bought the following 2 days ago:
InvestmentFund.me
InvestmentFunds.me
SendMessage.me
SendaMessage.me
I’m very happy with those!
You got that right, Robert! Same strategies that apply to stock and bond investing apply to domains- asset allocation and diversification. Various TLD’s, various sectors – geo, political, LLL, ###, verbs, nouns, etc.
I think the verbs, and nouns used as verbs will have and keep the highest value. Follwed by LLL and ###.
Remember that only those who had a landrush application in can take part in the current bidding at auctions.domain.me… so as soon as the winner is assigned the domain, we may see it on the market again.
There are already .me’s on the aftermarket sites, some ridiculously priced, while others are asking more appropriate figures.
Looking back and forth from the Me registry auctions to tdnam.com auctions, for example, if bring.me has active bidders at $8,005, you’d think dye.me will go pretty quick at $1,999 (being an LLL and a dictionary word that can be a noun or a verb). wretch.me, at $45k on the otherhand, looks quite a bit overpriced.
Thanks for the coment Ricky!
I honestly feel that in 10 years from now, Domain Investors will be highly rewarded simply because they pioneered by owning the land through domain asset allocation as you put it. The rewards have been tremendous for every other asset class that I can think of, real estate, stocks, art, wines and even classic cars! Domains are particularly interesting because they don’t require any leverage particularly at registration. Just think how billions of people will interact with these different extensions in the near future. Its going to be a lot bigger than we first imagined!
is someone selling his auction seat ?
if someone wishes to contact me,
aergis if my account name, at google’s mail, gmail com, as i may not be checking this thread here
tnx 🙂
Hi
I agreed 100% with Robert Haastrup-Timmi in the future 10 years from now. Diversified and hold them, and you will see. I bought a lot of PREMIUM domains ME as
aaa.me
california.me
code.me
loving.me
income.me
and many others…
I had the vision many months ago and register in advanced…
Juan Carlos
Juan, I really like california.me and code.me. Those should give a nice ROI.
I think .me will boom as we are definitely in a me,me society. People are looking for alternatives as all good .com names are taken. I bought six .me’s in the past week.
Bigcheese.me (for the big ego, CEO type)
Whyknot.me (for the boat owner or fishing type)
Hollywoodand.me
Nantucketsound.me
Lipread.me
Playballwith.me
watchthegamewith.me
I am again, of course, speculating! But buying a few, I reckon, can’t hurt.
How do I can be informed, when the .me domain be release in the auction?
I am looking for some great .me domains.
vorzeitig,
sedo has a number of .me’s being released by the registry for auctions starting 03.26.09. If the ones you want aren’t on the list, you can usually just type them in the browser address bar and you will be redirected to domain.me’s page for premium names which often lists the release date.
I would love to have some good dot me domains!
I was wondering if apple will sell their me.com domain name as now they are using icloud.com instead for all their cloud solutions. Me.com would be wonderful name to get hold of.