GMO to use Z.com domain name to fuel global expansion.
GMO Internet, operator of Japan’s largest domain name registrar, has acquired the one letter domain name Z.com for JPY800 million ($6.8 million), the company announced today.
Japanese car manufacturer Nissa sold the domain name, which it previously used to promote its Nissan Z car.
GMO says it’s going to use the domain name, one of only three single letter .com domains available, to accelerate its global market expansion:
As one of only three single-character domain names currently existing in the .com space, Z.com is highly memorable and offers unparalleled marketing opportunity. With over 100 million registrations, .com is one of the most instantly recognizable and easily identifiable domains in the world. Z.com was acquired to spearhead GMO Internet Group global growth strategy, and securing “Z” under the .com Top Level Domain, provides the Group with a powerful tool to build a strong global brand.
The company elaborates on its global brand expansion in a separate release.
In 2010, Verisign worked on a plan to auction off one letter .com domain names, most of which have been unavailable for registration. Although prices would be lower if all were released at once, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Verisign work up a similar plan again in the future.
Many new top level domain names are offering one letter domain names for registration. Donuts has offered some in the range of $400/year.
You seem to have misquoted it as “z.co”
Thanks…fixed it.
Great news! Now they can pay up for Nissan.com instead of harassing the owner since 1999.
Poor Nissan.com guy they had been after for years, now they go and sell this, most likely ask was $10M, and they agreed on this number, hopefully they go buy Nissan.com now most likely at least $5M as I am sure his legal bills are way up there.
Tired of seeing the Innovation that Excites commercials on TV. 😀
When was the last time Nissan bothered with him? That case was over long ago. He got to keep the name and has to keep pretending to sell computers. It’s pretty clear the two parties never came to an agreement on price. Which one of them was being unrealistic about that is something we just don’t know.
But, hey, you can “buy” a copy of Windows 7 for $169 at Nissan.com. Gosh, I’ll bet those are selling like hotcakes!
Long ago I almost got the seller of z.com to take $150K for it. Then he decided I had to also buy his chat service along his web servers for a combined price of $250K. I didn’t want to deal with a chat service and I passed on the deal.
Looks like I erred. 🙂
…still dreaming?
Moved on.
who is “Domainer Extraordinaire” ??