Meet the brokers behind TS.com domain name purchase

190.com brokers TS.com domain name acquisition.

GoDaddy’s NameFind sold the two letter domain name TS.com recently. While the buyer behind the deal is private, the buyer’s broker is not.

190.com brokered the deal for TS.com. While the company declined to disclose the sales price to Domain Name Wire, CEO JQ Tang told Domain Name Wire it was for high seven figures in RMB. That’s about USD $0.7 million to $1.5 million.

Dorothy Cui, Senior Domain Broker for 190.com, explained that the domain name is being held in 190.com’s name because it is collateral on a loan. 190.com lends money against domain names. The buyer needs to originally pay the full amount, and then 190.com lends money using the domain names as collateral. It only lends a portion of the value of the collateralized domain names. The company also lends money against domain names purchased elsewhere.

Cui said the company does about 20-30 million RMB per month in transactions across buy now, auction and brokerage transactions. That’s about USD $3 million to $4 million. It also recently brokered the purchase of 757.com for a mid six-figure price.

190.com is trying to innovate in the domain name market by launching an online exchange later this month. SJS.com (which is short for Digital Assets Exchange in Pinyin) will allow people to buy shares in domain names.