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Former Bitcoin.com CEO launches new venture at Hi.com

by — Domain Sales 1 Comment

This new financial company uses a killer domain to garner credibility.

Logo for hi has the word high is cursive, lowercase h and i, with blue hues.

Hi. Aside from being the abbreviation for Hawaii, it’s one of the most common informal greetings in the English language.

As it turns out, Hi is also a handy brand name. According to LinkedIn, several thousand companies use “Hi” as a part of their listed names. These include an aviation company, a travel platform, and an insurance company.

A newer company is branding purely around the two-letter Hi, though.

Hi, a financial services platform, was founded in 2020 and first came to my attention thanks to Crunchbase highlighting the company’s recent seed funding round.

Currently in private beta, Hi is a blockchain-based banking service that aims to provide a reimagined financial service suite to its customers. Its unconventional take on banking means that, according to Hi, users will soon be able to send money via popular messaging apps.

Financial institutions need to convey trust to potential customers, which can be difficult for a brand new company. Something that Hi has done to emanate trust, longevity, and integrity, is to launch on the perfect domain name.

Yes, Hi operates on the two-letter domain, Hi.com.

Hi.com is a powerful domain, but then again, Hi’s co-founders are no strangers to using premium domains. Stefan Rüst is the former CEO of Bitcoin.com, and Sean Rach is the former CMO of Crypto.com, a domain reportedly acquired for $12 million.

Hi.com itself may have had a 7 figure sale in its history.

In a January 2019 DNJournal article, Ron Jackson mentioned that: “I’ve learned (and seen documentation proving) that MavenDomains.com has brokered a $2.2 million dollar sale of another very nice 2-letter .com.”

According to Archive.org, Hi.com was listed for sale with brokerage company MavenDomains.com until late in 2018, when the name started to redirect to the website of Hi Inc., a Hong Kong-based travel company that closed its doors in August 2019.

It’s unclear whether the financial platform Hi, also based in Hong Kong, acquired the Hi.com domain outright or whether another arrangement has allowed Hi to use the name from launch.

What is clear is that the Hi.com domain has given the team the perfect digital podium to publicize its not-for-profit financial service products.

Already, after only a couple of months, Hi announced that it has surpassed 500,000 members of its private beta program.

20 end user domain name sales

by — Domain Sales 0 Comments

An automotive forum, a restaurant franchisor, and a soap company bought domains this week.

Picture of hundred dollar bills with the words "end user domain sales"

Sedo’s top public sales this week were Buy.co for $35,000 and iSwap.com. I can’t figure out who bought them yet, so they don’t qualify for this post, but both were likely end user acquisitions.

Here’s a list of end user domain name sales that just completed at Sedo. You can view previous lists like this here.

Superstore.co.in $15,000 – Nykaa is a makeup and beauty products company in Mumbai, India.

Holycode.com £11,000 – This domain forwards to the site for HolyCode, a software development shop. It uses the domain hack holycode.rs for its website.

Autoboss.com $8,900 – Autoboss is a car/automative enthusiast forum.

BestCryptoCasinos .com $8000 – Qebify is a company in Bulgaria. I believe it operates online gambling sites.

4Science.com $6,900 – ITway SPA has a data management business called 4Science that uses the domain 4Science.it.

X100.org $5,000 – X100 Holdings Public Company Limited has a number of restaurant brands. Its site says it has 1,357 retail outlets in 357 cities in 14 countries.

CandleCrafter.com $4,960 – Voyageur Soap & Candle Company Ltd in British Columbia bought this domain.

BennettHome.com $4,699 – Bennett Galleries is an interior design, art, and furniture company in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Lyfe.io $4,375 – Lyfe Group in Australia bought this domain. A DNB report says that the company is in the clothing industry.

UprightCitizen.com $3,499 – Film studio Bell The Cat Films bought this domain, presumably for one of its projects.

Massagesesselshop.de €3,400 – This domain forwards to massagesesselwelt.de, a site that sells massaging chairs. The domain translates to “Massage chair shop.”

COPD.ch €3,000 – COPD is short for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. The domain forwards to a page at lungenliga.ch, which I believe is operated by the Swiss Lung League. It appears to be a health advocacy group.

ChristianStone.com $3,000 – Golden Rule Real Estate in Montana is associated with Christian Stone, LLC. What’s odd is I found a PDF (presumably pre-dating this acquisition) that already mentions ChristianStone.com. Yet HugeDomains registered this domain in 2011 after an unrelated person in Louisiana owned it.

BTC.email $2,999 – It appears this will be a chat community for “YENIVERSE, home of the METACREATOR Community.”

A1Carpet.com $2,995 and A1CarpetCleaning.com $2,399 – Better Carpet Care in Monrovia, California, bought this domain. It goes by the name A1 Carpet Care and uses the domain A1CarpetCareUSA.com.

GrabAR.com $2,500 – Cirrus Soft Ltd is a software company that makes the Grab AR app, which uses AI and AR technology to copy any image content item to your device camera and view this in your surroundings.

OceanRepublic.com $2,500 – Ocean Republic is a group advocating for taking care of the seas.

Team-Digital.com $2,454 – All Printing Resources provides products and services for the printing industry.

PCSExpress.com $2,200 – PCS Software in Houston sells solutions for transportation logistics. One of its products is called Mobile Express.

17 end user domain name sales (and who bought them)

by — Domain Sales 1 Comment

A cybersecurity company, a private equity firm and a company that just raised $25 million bought domain names.

picture of rolled currency with the words "end-user domain sales"

Sedo sold the domain UI.link for $20,000 this past week. That’s the 4th most expensive .link domain sale ever published. It’s likely an end user but it’s not clear who bought it.

Here are the domains Sedo-brokered sales this past week that I could tie to end users. You can find more lists like this here.

OPS.io €15,000 – Blink is a cloud-native operations platform that allows SRE’s, DevOps and developers to manage, collaborate and automate operational tasks. It forwards this domain to BlinkOPS.com.

ArlingtonCapital.com $9,995 – Arlington Capital, a middle market private equity firm based in Washington DC, bought this domain. It currently uses ArlingtonCap.com for its website.

FraudWatch.com €8,375 – Cybersecurity company FraudWatch International bought this domain and forwards it to the longer domain FraudWatchInternational.com.

Imovel.pt €8,250 – This domain translates as property in Portuguese. The new owner has a basic website with articles about real estate. It looks like the site is still being built.

Rasgo.com €7,900 – Technology company Rasgo just raised a $25 million and bought its exact match domain to go with it. Its website is Rasgoml.com and it forwards the new domain to the old one.

Bring.ch €7,000 – Forwards to GetBring.com. Bring! Labs AG is a Swiss mobile tech company with an app for sharing shopping lists.

Integra.cloud $6,000 – Orgasoft, a German cloud software services provider, has a product called Integra ERP.

SuperArticles .com $5,373 – This company helps businesses publish articles on sites like Forbes and NBC.

OPLM.com €3,800 – The buyer is called Other Parents Like Me. I can’t find any info about it online.

DreamSupport.com $3,500 – Dream Support is an e-commerce support service.

Chateaux.fr €3,300 – This site has a “coming soon” message that says “Châteaux – Mariages – Réceptions”.

BenalbBeach.com $3,000 – This domain was bought by BenalB Group21 SL located in Benalmadena, Spain. It is a hospitality company.

HintApp.com $3,000 – Astrology app Hint, which uses the domain name hint.app, bought this domain and forwards it to the .app domain.

Namos.com €2,998 – Culturefly, a subscription box service that provides pop culture merchandise to its subscribers, bought this domain. I’m not sure what it’s for.

HortonAuctions.com $2,953 – Horton Auction & Real Estate is an auctioneer based in Alabama.

Accuratus.de €2,650 – Accuratus is a German consulting firm.

SentryMode.com  $2,220 – GTB got its start as the ad agency for Ford and now serves many clients. Sentry Mode is the name of a Tesla feature. As far as I know, Tesla doesn’t do advertising.

 

 

The problem with selling .org domains to Chinese entities

by — Domain Sales 2 Comments

Have a .org domain targeted to the Chinese market? Read on.

Do you own .org domains intended for Chinese buyers, such as Pinyin domains? If so, you should be aware of restrictions and trends that make aftermarket sales unlikely.

The chart below indicates the total number of .org domains registered in China over the last 15 years, according to China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC). You can see a consistent decline in recent years, which fell to 146,000 domains in 2020. This number is really tiny when compared with the 19 million .cn domains registered in the same year.

Chart showing decline in .org domains in China

There are several reasons this might be the case.

First, website operators in China need a license, and the government doesn’t issue licenses for .org domains.

If you visit Aliyun (Alibaba subsidiary), the largest domain registrar in China, you may find the following notice on its .org domain registration page.

.org域名暂无法进行网站备案，请先注册进行保护

The notice says that you can register your desired .org domain, but currently, you can’t apply for an ICP license to build and operate a website on the domain in China.

Obviously, this means registrars in China don’t push/promote .org domains heavily, and Chinese businesses and non-profits will steer clear of these domains.

Second, it isn’t easy to become a non-profit organization in China. As I have said earlier in another article, in recent years, the Chinese government has been very strict in confirming non-profit organization status. While .org is open to any type of registrant, it is a preferred extension for non-profits.

Finally, .org registry Public Interest Registry began focusing on quality over quantity of registrations a few years ago, so cheap promos for domain investors are out.

These issues, primarily the ICP issue, mean that .org domains held for sale specifically for the Chinese market are probably an unwise investment.

Latest end user sales at Sedo

by — Domain Sales 2 Comments

A lighting company, an astrophotographer, and a flavored water company bought domain names this past week.
Picture of hundred dollar bills with the words "end user domain sales"

Sedo’s top sale this past week was on.de for €119,000. The domain doesn’t resolve yet and .de Whois doesn’t show any personal information.

Another solid sale was a first and last name domain: Sedo brokered BrockMeyer.com for €27,500. There are many people with this name who might have bought it, so we’ll have to wait until it’s developed to find out who.

Here are the domains I could tie to end users. You can find more lists like this here.

ILimits.com £7,500 – iLimits S.A.L in Lebanon bought this domain. I can’t figure out what they do.

Cuba.nl €5,655 – The buyer has a site up about traveling to Cuba.

Kelv.in €5,000 – Rift Labs AS is an LED lighting company in Norway. Color temperature of lighting is measured in kelvin.

CandyLondon.com $4,900 – Pacific Beach Holdings Ltd in British Columbia bought this domain. There’s little public information about the company online.

Astrophotographer.com $4,192 – Astrophotography is pictures of astronomical objects. Ken Cunliffe forwards this domain to an Instagram page with his photos.

Roca.co.kr €3,500 – Roca sells bathroom goods such as faucets. It forwards this domain to Roca.com.

Air-Up.cz €3,000 – AirUp sells flavored water pods. It forwards this domain to Air-Up.com.

Besserleben.at €2,550 – edition a GmbH is a book publishing company. This domain translates to live better in English.

HRR.at €2,390 – Hochstaffl und Rupprechter Rechtsanwaelte GmbH is a law firm in Austria that now owns its initialism in .at. Maybe hochstaffl-rupprechter.com was too long.

MondoMenu.com €2,000 – MondoConnex has a product called MondoMenu, which is a digital menu solution for restaurants.

Strive.tech $2,000 – Strive uses sensors that integrate into any compression clothing to optimize muscle performance for elite athletes and teams. It forwards this domain to WeAreStrive.com

Council.inc $2,000 – The Brigade is a design firm. It’s rare to see a .inc domain sell on the aftermarket. NameBio shows only three other sales.

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