What is the true value of domain
name?Objectively and practically, it is known that a domain name matters when the traffic of a site with that name is greater than that of any other site with similar content and with the same binding. I know of several examples of names that were left by their holder out of unselfishness, and which could be resold for a good price, but were returned by speculators.
Evaluate Name Value
If the two sites cannot be compared, some criteria may indicate whether the domain name itself has a domain name or not. Above all, an area has value when a name naturally comes to mind and when it is easy to remember.
The criteria for the name value are as follows:
- it corresponds to the general word,
- that the word may be related to a service or product,
- let it be a keyword often searched for in search engine queries,
- be it .Net or .fr for a French language site,
- let it be a short word, and
- that it begins with the letter a, thus allowing it to rank first in alphabetical lists .
Typically, domains whose name consists of several words have little value on their own, unless this combination matches a frequent query. For example mp3audiobooks.com for which the company paid a huge amount, as it exactly corresponded to its activities or AsSeenOnTV.com corresponding to the usual phrase.
Most expensive domains sold
A domain name corresponding to a large commercial product can be resold at a dizzying price. A few examples:
| Area | Price in dollars | Date | Buyer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Altavista.com | 3 300 000 |
1999 | |
| Ancestry.com | 1.600.000 |
2012 | Permira |
| Answer.com | 550 000 |
November 2011 | Undisclosed. Was in the parking lot . |
| AsSeenOnTv.com | 5 100 000 |
January 18, 2000 | |
| Autos.com | 2 200 000 |
1999 | |
| Beer.com | 7 000 000 |
||
| Bingo.com | 200 000 |
||
| Blue.com | 500 000 |
2006 | |
| Brazil.com | 500 000 |
2009 | |
| Business.com | 7 400 000 |
1999 | |
| Call.com | 1 100 000 |
2009 | |
| Candy.com | 3 000 000 |
June 2009 | G&J Holdings |
| Casino.com | 5 500 000 |
2003 | |
| Cinema.com | 700 000 |
February 1, 2000 | |
| Computer.com | 500 000 |
||
| Creditcards.com | 2 750 000 |
2004 | |
| Cricket.com | 1 000 000 |
2009 | |
| Diamond.com | 7 500 000 |
Diamond merchant. | |
| Editor.com | 225 000 |
2009 | |
| Feedback.com | 1 200 000 |
2000 | |
| Fish.com | 1 020 000 |
2005 | |
| Fly.com | 1 500 000 |
2000 | |
| Fund.com | 10 000 000 |
2008 | |
| Forsalebyowner.com | 835 000 |
||
| iCloud.com | 4 500 000 |
2011 | Apple |
| Internet.com | 100 000 |
||
| iphone.com | 1 000 000 |
2007 | |
| Korea.com | 5 000 000 |
2007 | |
| Loans.com | 3 350 000 |
1999 | |
| Mp3audiobook.com | 8 000 000 |
February 16, 2000 | Inc. Santa-Rose |
| Netscape.com | 4 500 000 |
1999 | AOL |
| Pizza.com | 2 600 000 |
||
| Porn.com | 9 500 000 |
2007 |
|
| Rock.com | 1 000 000 |
2005 | |
| Russia.com | 1 500 000 |
11/2009 | |
| Seniors.com | 1 800 000 |
2007 | |
| Sex.com | 12 000 000 |
2006 | |
| Shop.com | 3 500 000 |
2005 | |
| Slots.com | 5 500 000 |
05/2010 | BodoBrand, sold to Moniker.com |
| Toys.com | 5 100 000 |
2009 | Tu'R 'USA. |
| University.com | 530 000 |
||
| Vip.com | 1 400 000 |
2005 | |
| Vodka.com | 3 000 000 |
December 4, 2006 | Standard Russian Co, a Russian vodka producer |
| Wallstreet.com | 1 030 000 |
1999 | |
| Wine.com | 2 900 000 |
1999 | |
| Wordwideweb.com | 3 500 000 |
1996 |
Sex.com was allegedly sold for $12 million after being robbed and then returned because the usurper fled to Mexico before extradition (Kremen/Cohen case).
Resold by Escom Clover Holdings Ltd for $13 million in October 2010.
Netscape.com. $4.2 billion in AOL in 1999, especially for the site, but with Mozilla open source, only the logo and domain name remained from Netscape.
Ancestry.com is a genealogy site, apparently a profitable sector. In this case, it is more the site and its audience make their value than just the domain.
ForSaleByOwner.com. means "offered for sale by the owner" or "directly by the owner."
AsSeenOnTV.com means "seen on TV."
Domains in ORG
| Domain in .org | Price | Year | Buyer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blackjack.org | 298 000 $ |
2007 | PokerCompany.com |
| Engineering.org | 198 000 $ |
2009 | |
| Poker.org | 1 000 000 $ |
2010 | PokerCompany.com |
Areas in FR
Some generic names in FR acquired recently at the time of TLD release may reach a good price in a few years as well as EU. To have an FR that limits demand compared to the EU, one must reside in France, giving the latter greater value.
However, both extensions will always cost far less than domains in com, an international expansion with a 20 times wider audience.
As an example, when at the cost of FR it is known that Accoona.fr domain name was traded for €24,000 using the search engine of the same name, which led to some twists and turns when domain ownership became the subject of litigation.
€20,000 often exceeded a few examples:
| Domain in .fr | Price |
Year | Buyer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Annonces.fr | 29 000 € |
2008 | |
| Auto.fr | 100 000 € |
July 2008 | |
| Porn.fr | 30 000 € |
||
| Voitures.fr | 50 000 € |
July 2008 |
One could add to the retraite.com list, bought for €85,000 in May 2013 and concerning France albeit in.. com.
Other country areas
| Domain in .eu | Price |
Year | Buyer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Games.eu | 67 500 € |
2009 | |
| Textbooks.co | 12 000 $ |
November 2011 |
It is known that this amount per domain was exceeded, but the names were not disclosed .
Some value assigned to the co extension is a country extension for Colombia, but used as a substitute for com.
Domain theft
Ensure that the domain status is set to "registrar lock." The area can be debugged by transferring to another name without your consent and in a country where prosecution is difficult.
Locking is not possible for FR, BE, EU.
Cyberquatting (Cyberquatting)
The term refers to the fact that a domain name of a well-known brand is included in an extension where it was not done by the company, in the hope that it will buy it back from you for a good price. This principle is not fully controversial as long as it concerns a reasonable price, such as 10,000-20,000 euros, which are only small for a large company.
However, cyberneeting generates excesses. To force the company to buy out the domain, the domain is pointed to a competitor's site, for example! It is also reprehensible to demand an exorbitant amount from the company under the pretext that the brand name is worth it, since it was the brand owner who gave him his value!
While the practice may be successful in France and other European countries, it has sometimes made a state of cyberquatters in the US.
Between 1999 and 2006, the World Intellectual Property Organization (OPMI) handled more than 20,000 complaints about domain name cyberquatting in ten different languages.
Select a domain name
A domain itself brings traffic if the name is short and generic. But the choice of expansion is also important. Country expansion is encouraged in local search engines. Thus, the domain name in .fr brings 10% more visitors with equivalent content than .com for resident visitors in France.
There is no advantage for general expansion over another, but it is better to choose them due to the nature of the site: .com for any kind of site, .net for a site that accesses webmasters, .org for a non-commercial site.
Further information
- See the webmaster tools to select the keywords you are looking for.
- Comparison of registrations. The case
- Sex.com. This surviving novel tells how the theft of a domain name turns against a thief. (English).