What is it like to receive emails every week offering you a multiple seven-figure sum for your domain name? Meet @jason calacanis, the owner of 20.com, which he bought in 2006 for just $75,000.
Jason is no stranger to owning valuable domain names. As an entrepreneur, he has founded companies such as Mahalo.com and Inside.com, which used generic domain names to great effect to help generate millions of visitors per month to the websites.
This is just the tip of an entrepreneurial iceberg. In Jason's career, he has created Weblogs Inc, Netscape.com, ThisWeekIn.com, and he has also invested in companies such as Tumblr, Uber, and Evernote in his ongoing role as an Angel Investor.
Last week, Jason announced on NamePros that he intends to sell 20.com in a private auction, with bids expected to reach into the $5 million range. Jason also revealed that he regularly receives offers in the $2 million to $3 million range for the domain name.
This follows a pattern of constantly increasing offers, as tweeted by Jason (@Jason on Twitter). In 2011, he received a $400,000 offer for 20.com. In January 2015, the offers had reached $1.4 million, and by the end of October 2015, the highest offer was $2.4 million.
At one stage, Jason had the idea of using 20.com as a location-service, based around the common radio phrase: "What's your 20?" He also had the idea of using 20.com as a URL shortener but with the increasingly large offers he is receiving, selling the domain name makes sense.
With such high interest in the domain name, a $5 million sales price isn't out of the question. But why is this domain name so desirable, and why have the offers increased drastically over the last couple of years?
Anyone following the domain market or actively involved in domain name investing has witnessed the influx of Chinese investors using domain names as alternative investments to the unsteady Chinese stock market. It also allows investors to store their money in assets that have a dollar value.
Chinese investors are looking for short domain names. The markets for two-, three- and four- letter domain names have risen rapidly (chart of recent four-letter .COM prices) and numerical domain names have gone the same way.
Two-number .COM domain names such as 20.com are seen as some of the most exclusive domain investments available, and they are also desirable for companies. The last public two-number .COM domain name sale was 37.com, which sold for almost $2 million at the start of 2014. This name was acquired by 37Games.
Since then, there have been reports of sales of two-number .COM's, but no statistics have been revealed publicly. 50.com was sold by MediaOptions last year, and earlier this year, I reported on the sale of 73.com between two Chinese investors.
Aside from being an extremely rare domain name, "20" also has meaning in China. A NamePros member, @ChinaMobi (creator of the Chinese Perspective) gave us a translation of the term 20.
20 can be translated to
ChinaMobi also shared an interesting story regarding the upgrade of JingDong from 360buy.com to JD.com, which helped to save them $20 million per year:
Jason's auction will begin on January 5th, 2016 with the goal of breaking $5 million. His auction, which he is running himself, will consist of one round of open bidding, followed by a second round involving the three highest bidders. Anyone wishing to participate in this auction should express interest before the auction begins.
Without a doubt, Jason will get an excellent return on his initial investment of just $75,000.
Jason is no stranger to owning valuable domain names. As an entrepreneur, he has founded companies such as Mahalo.com and Inside.com, which used generic domain names to great effect to help generate millions of visitors per month to the websites.
This is just the tip of an entrepreneurial iceberg. In Jason's career, he has created Weblogs Inc, Netscape.com, ThisWeekIn.com, and he has also invested in companies such as Tumblr, Uber, and Evernote in his ongoing role as an Angel Investor.
Last week, Jason announced on NamePros that he intends to sell 20.com in a private auction, with bids expected to reach into the $5 million range. Jason also revealed that he regularly receives offers in the $2 million to $3 million range for the domain name.
This follows a pattern of constantly increasing offers, as tweeted by Jason (@Jason on Twitter). In 2011, he received a $400,000 offer for 20.com. In January 2015, the offers had reached $1.4 million, and by the end of October 2015, the highest offer was $2.4 million.
At one stage, Jason had the idea of using 20.com as a location-service, based around the common radio phrase: "What's your 20?" He also had the idea of using 20.com as a URL shortener but with the increasingly large offers he is receiving, selling the domain name makes sense.
With such high interest in the domain name, a $5 million sales price isn't out of the question. But why is this domain name so desirable, and why have the offers increased drastically over the last couple of years?
Anyone following the domain market or actively involved in domain name investing has witnessed the influx of Chinese investors using domain names as alternative investments to the unsteady Chinese stock market. It also allows investors to store their money in assets that have a dollar value.
Chinese investors are looking for short domain names. The markets for two-, three- and four- letter domain names have risen rapidly (chart of recent four-letter .COM prices) and numerical domain names have gone the same way.
Two-number .COM domain names such as 20.com are seen as some of the most exclusive domain investments available, and they are also desirable for companies. The last public two-number .COM domain name sale was 37.com, which sold for almost $2 million at the start of 2014. This name was acquired by 37Games.
Since then, there have been reports of sales of two-number .COM's, but no statistics have been revealed publicly. 50.com was sold by MediaOptions last year, and earlier this year, I reported on the sale of 73.com between two Chinese investors.
Aside from being an extremely rare domain name, "20" also has meaning in China. A NamePros member, @ChinaMobi (creator of the Chinese Perspective) gave us a translation of the term 20.
20 can be translated to
爱你, which means Love You. It can also mean 爱赢, which translates as Love to win. ChinaMobi notes, "They are wonderful brands for many services or products: such as dating, match-making, betting, and baby products, which are all big businesses in China."ChinaMobi also shared an interesting story regarding the upgrade of JingDong from 360buy.com to JD.com, which helped to save them $20 million per year:
According to the panelists at China Boot Camp for Domainers 2015, currently 70% of visitors in China come to a website via search engines. The reason is that many website names are hard to remember. JingDong proved this point. JingDong spent US$3m to upgrade from 360buy.com to JD.com and as a result saved US$20m every year in buying search engine placements. This is because once consumers remember JD.com, they skip search engines and go direct to the website.
Jason's auction will begin on January 5th, 2016 with the goal of breaking $5 million. His auction, which he is running himself, will consist of one round of open bidding, followed by a second round involving the three highest bidders. Anyone wishing to participate in this auction should express interest before the auction begins.
Without a doubt, Jason will get an excellent return on his initial investment of just $75,000.
