Company upgrades from domain hack to minus.com.
Who paid $115,000 for the minus.com domain name?
New York City startup min.us officially disclosed that it is the buyer of the domain name. It previously went by the domain name min.us, a “domain hack” using the United States country code domain name.
Why move from a domain hack to a good .com domain name? As the company explains on its blog:
But as we have grown, it’s become apparent that some of our users find the .us top level domain to be confusing. As we brand our service with the Minus name, we want to be as accessible as possible to all users and make it easy for users to find us.
The seller originally stated that the buyer was a “math educational non-profit startup” according to the story on The Domains, but if that’s the impression he was under then he got spun a web of bull. Minus.com is a file sharing service for social networks.
GenericGene says
There are just so many extensions now, I think the demand for dot com’s will soar for a number of reasons – Cheers
Jonathan says
.com or second tier,got to be right brand decision.
ringer says
lol..nice tactic of pretending to be a non-profit to get a better price on the domain. I bet the seller is pretty pissed off at Minus now.Lol.
yep says
Killer name, the obvious upgrade for a successful startup. We’re seeing a lot of domain hacks go for the .COM after they become well-established. Profit, non-profit, whatever, you do what you have to do to get it.
Brad says
“The seller originally stated that the buyer was a “math educational non-profit startup” according to the story on The Domains, but if that’s the impression he was under then he got spun a web of bull. Minus.com is a file sharing service for social networks.”
If that story is true the buyer should be ashamed of themselves. There is no honor in coming up with a BS story and lying to acquire a domain for cheaper. That is a disgrace.
Brad
Snoopy says
“There is no honor in coming up with a BS story and lying to acquire a domain. The buyer should be ashamed of themselves.
I am so sick of people having no problem openly lying for personal gain.”
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@Brad,
A big buyer like that is not going to tell the domainer owner what they are going to do with the name for the simple reason that domain owners often like thinking up different pricing depending on who the buyer is. I like doing this as well but it doesn’t mean buyers should just go along with it.
Nothing wrong with what they have done in my view. If someone approaches me and tells me they are a college student and it ends out being Microsoft I don’t care. I may not believe it or take them very seriously but I don’t really care, it is all part of negotiating.
The only reason why this would effect a seller is if they are pricing according to the buyer rather than according to the name so the game starts with sellers and buyers respond to that game. Imagine if you went into the furniture store and they told you everything was priced according to your occupation?
Here are 2 scenarios for you,
Scenario 1. I come along and want to buy an average quality 4 letter .com off you.
Scenario 2. Bill Gates approaches you telling you Microsoft must acquire that 4 letter .com.
Does your pricing between Scenario 1 and 2 change? If it does then that is the answer to why people lie about their identity and reasons for buying a domain.
Andrew Allemann says
The buyer used a broker, so maybe it was he who came up with the story.
DR.VEGAS says
@Brad:
Well at least to these ears…that tactic will only have been successful once.:-)
Frantisek Mrazek says
Whenever someone says he is non-profit I automatically double the price
BrianWick says
Our research showed min.us – but the fundamentals of the sale did not change – college student, startup, girl scouts, non-profit or fortune 1000 company.
We found it entertaining that a 24 year old guy could wing around over $100K as “grant money” from Japan /US – the dead give away was they could not wait to buy more domains from me as soon as this one went thru – that is when they had around 50 on the table and I was getting my jollies off the brand new bidet Roy Flanders (DotComCatalog) had just sent me.
At the end of the day – these guys maybe had probably 10 – 20 more – but being greedy and waiting for 150-200 and ending up with nothing was not my objective in a deal that took several months – and as Michael Berkes at TheDomains points out a 15x return
Fundamentals of Real Estate 101 – if you can reinvest money that is on the table into another property at 50 cents on the dollar – i will not trip over a nickel trying to save a penny – And I did not trip.
That meanw we are very pleased with our reinvestment – so we all win.