Last year, the digital investment space has been dominated by the continual rise of cryptocurrency. While the phenomenal potential returns from cryptocurrency investment have grabbed headlines around the world, the domain industry has continued to produce fascinating stories of its own. Here, we’re going to take a look back at our list of ten of the top stories from the domain name industry from 2017. These may be domain sales, interesting acquisitions or even mainstream exposure for the industry.
Elon Musk Acquires X.com
In July, Jamie Zoch (@Yofie) of DotWeekly discovered that PayPal had sold the X.com domain name after the one-letter domain moved under privacy protection to GoDaddy. Days later, confirmation came via DomainInvesting.com (@EJS) that the domain had indeed been sold and the buyer was billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk.
The news was soon confirmed via Musk himself via Twitter and hundreds of articles from global media outlets ensued. The sales price of X.com has never been revealed, but given the rarity of one-letter .COM domains, it’s unlikely to have been less than mid seven-figures.
Freedom Mortgage Buys Freedom.com for $2 million
Domain investor and broker Ali Zandi (@Ali) revealed that he brokered the seven-figure sale of Freedom.com in May. In an exclusive interview performed by @Michael Cyger on DomainSherpa.com, Ali spoke about the sale and how he managed to become the exclusive broker for such an incredible domain name. The interview gives an interesting insight into how a leading broker goes about selling a seven figure name. Freedom.com is now forwarding to FreedomMortgage.com.
Ali’s company subsequently sold Heritage.com to Heritage Auctions later in the year.
Domain Industry Featured on the BBC
British TV featured domain name investing in a prime time program last year. The BBC’s “The One Show”, which airs every night at 7pm to over a million viewers, aired a four-minute feature that looked into domain names as investments. The program interviewed Aron Meystedt (@Napkin.com), @Jeffrey Gabriel of @Uniregistry and British domainer Graham Haynes (@betthelot).
ETH.com Sells for $2 million
More recently, DNJournal revealed the second $2 million domain sale of the year. The domain name ETH.com, brokered by @Sharjil Saleem, was confirmed as sold by @Ron Jackson of DNJournal. ETH is the coin created for the Ethereum network and has enjoyed a meteoric climb in value that has seen one ETH jump from under $100 in June to above $800 in December. The domain itself hasn’t been used since and the buyer is unknown since the domain remains under privacy protection. Similar domains Ethereum.com and Ether.com are currently on the market.
Jason Calacanis Sells 20.com
Serial entrepreneur @Jason Calacanis acquired 20.com back in 2006 for just $75,000. Since buying the name, Jason received regular offers for the domain that increased from six figure fees to seven figure fees. In April, Jason opted to sell the domain and confirmed to the NamePros Blog that he had indeed sold the name for $1.75 million in a deal brokered by @Joe Uddeme of NameExperts.com. The domain is now owned by a Chinese investor.
Verizon Buys Oath.com
After acquiring Yahoo! for $4.5 billion, telecom giant Verizon made the decision to merge Yahoo! and its existing media company AOL. The name of the new merged company? Oath. This new brand name was ridiculed by many commentators but Verizon went ahead with the rebranding and ultimately purchased the Oath.com domain name. The domain was acquired from the World.com portfolio for an undisclosed fee. Verizon now host Oath’s homepage on the domain.
Media Options Buys DomainSherpa
In September, @DomainSherpa publisher Michael Cyger announced that he was ceasing production of the DomainSherpa website after five and a half years of engaging content that resulted in numerous industry awards. The void left by Michael’s departure was soon filled by Media Options' CEO Andrew Rosener, a regular guest on the DomainSherpa review, who announced in October that his company acquired DomainSherpa.
Eric Lyon and the Houston Flood
NamePros administrator @Eric Lyon and his family lost everything in the flood that resulted from Hurricane Harvey. Domainer George Verdugo (@BigBoyDog) created a GoFundMe page through which many domain industry participants sent donations. The fund closed at a total of $16,580 that helped Eric and his family to purchase a motorhome.
Rick Schwartz Sells Ten NNN .COM Domains
Veteran domainer @Rick Schwartz is no stranger to seven-figure deals. Having previously completed multi-million dollar sales for domains such as Candy.com and Porno.com, Rick announced in November that he had successfully sold his last ten three-number .COM (NNN) domains. The sales price wasn’t revealed but this deal, brokered by TopNames.org, is likely to be in the mid seven-figure range.
Aron Meystedt Sells XF.com and OC.com
Veteran domain investor Aron Meystedt (@Napkin.com) has a stellar list of domain names in his portfolio. March.com and Symbolics.com are two of his best but in August, Aron opted to sell off two of his domains. Those domains were XF.com and OC.com, as listed in this NamePros Blog report.
Bonus: NamePros Top 5's
In 2017, NamePros posted many articles, news stories and interviews. Here are the top five stories among the most viewed on NamePros in 2017:
The incredible NamePros community contributed to many stories of the past year. Here are five articles among the most commented in 2017:
Elon Musk Acquires X.com
In July, Jamie Zoch (@Yofie) of DotWeekly discovered that PayPal had sold the X.com domain name after the one-letter domain moved under privacy protection to GoDaddy. Days later, confirmation came via DomainInvesting.com (@EJS) that the domain had indeed been sold and the buyer was billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk.
The news was soon confirmed via Musk himself via Twitter and hundreds of articles from global media outlets ensued. The sales price of X.com has never been revealed, but given the rarity of one-letter .COM domains, it’s unlikely to have been less than mid seven-figures.
Freedom Mortgage Buys Freedom.com for $2 million
Domain investor and broker Ali Zandi (@Ali) revealed that he brokered the seven-figure sale of Freedom.com in May. In an exclusive interview performed by @Michael Cyger on DomainSherpa.com, Ali spoke about the sale and how he managed to become the exclusive broker for such an incredible domain name. The interview gives an interesting insight into how a leading broker goes about selling a seven figure name. Freedom.com is now forwarding to FreedomMortgage.com.
Ali’s company subsequently sold Heritage.com to Heritage Auctions later in the year.
British TV featured domain name investing in a prime time program last year. The BBC’s “The One Show”, which airs every night at 7pm to over a million viewers, aired a four-minute feature that looked into domain names as investments. The program interviewed Aron Meystedt (@Napkin.com), @Jeffrey Gabriel of @Uniregistry and British domainer Graham Haynes (@betthelot).
ETH.com Sells for $2 million
More recently, DNJournal revealed the second $2 million domain sale of the year. The domain name ETH.com, brokered by @Sharjil Saleem, was confirmed as sold by @Ron Jackson of DNJournal. ETH is the coin created for the Ethereum network and has enjoyed a meteoric climb in value that has seen one ETH jump from under $100 in June to above $800 in December. The domain itself hasn’t been used since and the buyer is unknown since the domain remains under privacy protection. Similar domains Ethereum.com and Ether.com are currently on the market.
Jason Calacanis Sells 20.com
Serial entrepreneur @Jason Calacanis acquired 20.com back in 2006 for just $75,000. Since buying the name, Jason received regular offers for the domain that increased from six figure fees to seven figure fees. In April, Jason opted to sell the domain and confirmed to the NamePros Blog that he had indeed sold the name for $1.75 million in a deal brokered by @Joe Uddeme of NameExperts.com. The domain is now owned by a Chinese investor.
Verizon Buys Oath.com
After acquiring Yahoo! for $4.5 billion, telecom giant Verizon made the decision to merge Yahoo! and its existing media company AOL. The name of the new merged company? Oath. This new brand name was ridiculed by many commentators but Verizon went ahead with the rebranding and ultimately purchased the Oath.com domain name. The domain was acquired from the World.com portfolio for an undisclosed fee. Verizon now host Oath’s homepage on the domain.
Media Options Buys DomainSherpa
In September, @DomainSherpa publisher Michael Cyger announced that he was ceasing production of the DomainSherpa website after five and a half years of engaging content that resulted in numerous industry awards. The void left by Michael’s departure was soon filled by Media Options' CEO Andrew Rosener, a regular guest on the DomainSherpa review, who announced in October that his company acquired DomainSherpa.
Eric Lyon and the Houston Flood
NamePros administrator @Eric Lyon and his family lost everything in the flood that resulted from Hurricane Harvey. Domainer George Verdugo (@BigBoyDog) created a GoFundMe page through which many domain industry participants sent donations. The fund closed at a total of $16,580 that helped Eric and his family to purchase a motorhome.
Rick Schwartz Sells Ten NNN .COM Domains
Veteran domainer @Rick Schwartz is no stranger to seven-figure deals. Having previously completed multi-million dollar sales for domains such as Candy.com and Porno.com, Rick announced in November that he had successfully sold his last ten three-number .COM (NNN) domains. The sales price wasn’t revealed but this deal, brokered by TopNames.org, is likely to be in the mid seven-figure range.
Aron Meystedt Sells XF.com and OC.com
Veteran domain investor Aron Meystedt (@Napkin.com) has a stellar list of domain names in his portfolio. March.com and Symbolics.com are two of his best but in August, Aron opted to sell off two of his domains. Those domains were XF.com and OC.com, as listed in this NamePros Blog report.
Bonus: NamePros Top 5's
In 2017, NamePros posted many articles, news stories and interviews. Here are the top five stories among the most viewed on NamePros in 2017:
- What's Your Favorite Domain Name That You Own?
- Top Ten Domain Names Owned by Mark Cuban
- Blockchain Company Monkey Acquires Monkey.com for $500,000
- Five Of The Best Google Chrome Extensions For Domainers
- Five Things I Wish I Knew Before Starting Domaining
The incredible NamePros community contributed to many stories of the past year. Here are five articles among the most commented in 2017:
