Whatever the initial investment was, this domain name is a big asset to mindfulness company.
I’ve used a few meditation apps, but I recently subscribed to Calm given the traction it’s getting and the quality of the app.
The company also has a great domain name: Calm.com.
Even though Calm is primarily consumed as a phone app, you can bet the domain name is paying dividends. There are two reasons I think this domain is important.
First, Calm.com gives the app credibility. There are lots of meditation apps out there and quality varies. Having this great domain name shows that the company is serious. You need not worry about paying for an annual subscription; it’s not some copycat app.
Second, it’s great for advertising. The company is doing lots of audio advertising lately on podcasts. It can refer people to the Calm.com domain rather than tell them to just download the app. The company gives each podcast a special URL in the format calm.com/name to offer customers a 25% discount. (I bet it gets about the same revenue from its site with a 25% discount than it gets when someone pays full price through Apple’s app store.)
I’m not sure how much the company paid for Calm.com. An old video suggests it was at least high five figures, but it’s certainly worth much more than that. It might have been a lot to pay at the time when the company was small. Now it has raised over $25 million in outside capital and has a value of around $250 million raised over $100 million and has a billion dollar valuation.
You’re a bit behind the curve, Andrew 🙂
Calm just raised $88 million in a new funding round at a valuation of $1 billion making it the first “mental health” unicorn.
https://venturebeat.com/2019/02/06/the-meditation-unicorn-calm-raises-88-million-at-1-billion-valuation/
By the way, Jason Calacanis is an early stage investor in Calm.
Don’t know how I missed that! Just updated the story.
Calm would have to pay Apple regardless of whether they came through the domain or not.
Might save them some money for Android though if the can avoid Google’s store.
I don’t believe that’s how it works. If you buy a subscription to a service outside of Apple’s ecosystem then you can log into that service on an Apple app and Apple doesn’t get a cut. That’s why Amazon video makes you buy things through the Amazon site before you can consume them on their iOS app.
Yeah I get what you are saying. Sell on the website then get them to download the app. It is probably the road ahead for a lot of companies.
I don’t see how any meditation company whose main product is an app subscription could ever maintaining a 1 billion evaluation, I don’t care how good the domain is, but kudos to them for having calm.com.
It’s also a unicorn in terms of a domain which fails the radio test being a hit nonetheless.
How else could you spell calm?
“If you have to spell it over the phone, you’ve lost.” Jason Calacanis
How else could you spell ”calm“?? lol
Kalm.ca
Oh clueless ones, it would tend to be mistaken for “com.com.”
I guess that‘s right.. after your usual five drinks.
Yes John, they may also think it was corn.com, palm.com and perhaps even kalmon.com.
That’s right, just double down…
WELL SAID GUYS ! . CUM
Here is interview with the guy who started calm.com
https://mixergy.com/interviews/calm-with-michael-acton-smith/
Well said guys. Thanks
No more guessing on the sale price on the calm.com domain – CEO Alex Tew shares in a 2018 interview with Jason Calacanis, “We paid 140,000 dollars, but it took a long time to get that deal through…” (timestamped youtube video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NJo5uGoQrY&t=354s).