This is the first in a series of posts covering top stories in the domain industry from 2019.
In 2010, the domain name Sex.com sold for $13 million. It was a record for a cash transaction.
I’ve heard whispers of other, bigger domain sales since then. But none of them have ever been publicly confirmed.
So the Sex.com record stood as the highest price paid for a domain that was publicly disclosed. Until 2019.
That’s when Block.one, a blockchain company, paid a staggering $30 million to acquire Voice.com from Microstrategy (NASDAQ: MSTR).
Block.one had some funny money to play with. It apparently raised $4 billion in an initial coin offering, despite having no product. The company probably laughed when it paid the U.S. SEC only $24 million to settle securities claims.
The company plans to launch a social network using the domain, but it still hasn’t launched.
Will this domain record last a decade as Sex.com did?
How was this sale negotiated, anyone has any actual info on that?
Godaddy handled that sale
Great sale of course, great promo for dot com values but at that level and as mentioned when funny money is involved… “is this real life” is about as clear as I can say it. You cannot exactly use that sale as a comparable unless the company you are dealing with has billions to play with, no real product, needs to make a splash and is “new school” on a certain level. Can a pure domain name comparable be deemed nearly useless?
I know there is no longer any confidence regarding PrivateJet.com, some others, and cars.com is debatable. However, is it really not considered adequately confirmed that LasVegas.com was sold as a domain only transaction for the $90 million or so over time? And does that not count?
None of those are real sales.
“Breaking: $90 Million Domain Sale Revealed”
https://www.namepros.com/blog/breaking-65million-domain-sale-revealed.891196/
Check out the recent privatejet.com suit…this is an expensive ongoing trial…and another 3 million USD suit filed…allegations of racketeering, defamation…
the 3 domains that have the wildest backstories: Sex.com, Sportsbet.com , PrivateJet.com would make for terrific documentary…ownership of sportsbet.com in the late 90s, early aughts is like an adventure thriller (expats, carib island, the mob, fbi, party party)
Decentralized social media will be huge. It was a smart.play regardless of the price. Blockchain, decentralization are the future.
Lambodough.com is the next big one!
Yes, will be a decade or more before it is broken.
It’s odd this ever made it public to begin with, most times these go unreported at that level. It’s not the first or last.