Last week, we brought you the news that the two-letter domain name BY.com had been sold to a Chinese investor, after failing to sell in the NamesCon auction earlier this year. Today, the seller of BY.com, André Eidskrem, revealed that he had sold his prized domain name for over $1mm, after acquiring the name in 1996 for just $5,000.
This $5,000 price tag was motivated by Mr Eidskrem's idea of building a Norweigan GEO platform on the domain name, filled with news and tourism articles, as "by" translates to "city" in Norweigan.
The news of this sale became front page news on Verdens Gang last night, a national newspaper in André's native Norway. Whilst there have been reports regarding the exact price that the domain sold for, André himself has opted to keep the exact sales price private, but did reveal that the price was above $1mm.
In an article for his startup, Shaping The Odds, André and his team revealed that he has received "dozens" of offers for the domain name, which is hardly surprising given China's interest in acquiring short domains over the past year.
When asked about the offers, Mr Eidskrem said “Some of those offers were tempting, but even when I was struggling to finance my startups, I felt it just wasn’t the right time to sell, although it was always my intention to do so. I’ve kept an eye on the Chinese market in particular and studied the cycles of growth and crashes.”
The decision to sell BY.com was only made in January 2016, when the domain was entered into the NamesCon 2016 auction. This auction attracted a highest bid of $900,000, but again the owner opted not to sell.
With enquiries still being sent regarding this name, an offer in excess of $1mm came in, and the domain was sold to an anonymous Chinese investor, who is a client of the Chinese marketplace 4.cn.
“The buyer wishes to remain confidential and for the exact amount of the sale not to be disclosed. That’s not uncommon with a transaction of this value, especially if they plan to flip. I imagine the buyer has great plans for by.com", André said.
Reports have suggested that the final sales price was around $1.17mm, or 10 million Norwegian kroner, which would have seen this sale posted as the second highest domain sale of the year, according to DNJournal's chart. The highest sale of this year remains LA.com, which was sold by GoDaddy for $1.2mm.
This $5,000 price tag was motivated by Mr Eidskrem's idea of building a Norweigan GEO platform on the domain name, filled with news and tourism articles, as "by" translates to "city" in Norweigan.
The news of this sale became front page news on Verdens Gang last night, a national newspaper in André's native Norway. Whilst there have been reports regarding the exact price that the domain sold for, André himself has opted to keep the exact sales price private, but did reveal that the price was above $1mm.
In an article for his startup, Shaping The Odds, André and his team revealed that he has received "dozens" of offers for the domain name, which is hardly surprising given China's interest in acquiring short domains over the past year.
When asked about the offers, Mr Eidskrem said “Some of those offers were tempting, but even when I was struggling to finance my startups, I felt it just wasn’t the right time to sell, although it was always my intention to do so. I’ve kept an eye on the Chinese market in particular and studied the cycles of growth and crashes.”
The decision to sell BY.com was only made in January 2016, when the domain was entered into the NamesCon 2016 auction. This auction attracted a highest bid of $900,000, but again the owner opted not to sell.
With enquiries still being sent regarding this name, an offer in excess of $1mm came in, and the domain was sold to an anonymous Chinese investor, who is a client of the Chinese marketplace 4.cn.
“The buyer wishes to remain confidential and for the exact amount of the sale not to be disclosed. That’s not uncommon with a transaction of this value, especially if they plan to flip. I imagine the buyer has great plans for by.com", André said.
Reports have suggested that the final sales price was around $1.17mm, or 10 million Norwegian kroner, which would have seen this sale posted as the second highest domain sale of the year, according to DNJournal's chart. The highest sale of this year remains LA.com, which was sold by GoDaddy for $1.2mm.
