Owner of .buzz plans to exit the business through an auction.
The .buzz domain name can be yours–for a minimum bid of $3.5 million.
DotStrategy, the company behind .buzz, is holding a sealed auction for the domain.
.Buzz has always fascinated me, and not just because of the unique characteristics of the domain itself. It has essentially been led from concept to execution by one person, Bill Doshier, who had no prior experience in the domain name business.
I wrote about .buzz before it launched, and also interviewed Doshier for a podcast at the beginning of the year. On the podcast, Doshier discussed a market opportunity for .buzz that he didn’t foresee when he applied for the domain name–the marijuana business, which has been growing thanks to legalization in certain parts of the United States.
.Buzz currently has 9,300 registrations. Its wholesale price is a hefty $25 per year, although registrars have offered prices lower than this on initial registrations.
The numbers aren’t huge but are respectable for an individually run top level domain name.
60% of registrations are at GoDaddy and eNom accounts for 15%. More than half of registrations are made for more than one year.
There could be some quick upside for the buyer. There are 47,000 reserved domain names that could be released through the registrar channel. There are also 975 adult/vice names that Doshier decided to hold back indefinitely to keep them out of the namespace. The buyer can release these to the market.
Does this make the domain worth $3.5 million? The market will have to decide.
We all knew this sad march was coming, the owner is jumping ship, he knows he has a dud as he can’t even break 10k.
Nobody is paying premium prices anymore, he had a chance on launch, he had hype back then, domainers have turned their nose to these now, end users are in no hurry, especially when you only offer your customers the garbage, and lock up the best.
Business class lesson on how not to launch, epic failure.
We all predicted there would be registry consolidation. It’s simply more efficient to share resources amongst a portfolio of TLDs.
.CLUB is an exception. Donuts, Radix, Rightside, Uniregistry, et al. are the rule.
I like .buzz and think it’s worth a good sum, but I don’t see someone buying for that price. People are offering less than application costs, so if Bill could develop it a bit more and find buyers that are not vultures, it would be a better outcome.
Sounds like a great investment.
. . . and yet another nail in the coffin of the new tlds.
The buzzards are circling . . .
I like .buzz extension it would be great for what’s trending at the moment.types of websites. It would also make a good website about domain speculations and what’s hot in domain names.
There is a huge opportunity here. 47,000 held back names, just imagine if you sold them for only $1k each. You will be rich! Can I borrow $3M from somebody before someone else thinks of this master plan!?!
So, after expenses of running it , it’ll take about 35 years to make back the 3.5 million, ohhh yeah what a buy
If I had the $3.5M today I’d unquestionably buy .buzz he possibilities are endless here and with some creativity you could sell it for $5+M in 3-5 years…easy!