Honest.com valuated at $1 billion- the importance of generic .COM

[Arpit131]

Actress Jessica Alba's Honest Co, environmental-friendly baby care startup has an estimated worth of $1 billion, according to Wall Street Journal

After raising $70 million investment, the company and Jessica Alba are busy promoting the sale of toxic-free, environment friendly substance.
The company's revenue is expected to exceed $150 million in 2014, three times that of 2013.
The company acquired the domain name Honest.com for a mere $180,000 in 2011 from Anything.com, a Domain portfolio investor.

From an initial investment of $180,000 to a final valuation of $1 billion, the importance of operating from a generic .COM is once again paramount.

Read the report of Wall Street Journal HERE

 

[jamesosix]

tbf they got a bargain imo. I wouldnt let a domain like that go for less than 500k (pounds)..

 

[DU]

Everyone says that once someone else sold the name and see the full story unfold.

The story is classic domainer click bait. Domain bought for x. Company worth y.

Obviously a direct correlation between X and y. Yawn.

 

[Name Trader]

How much did she pay for the domain?

 

[Blake]

I wouldn't consider it a generic if they have plans of branding it as such....It's really no longer a generic.

 

[DU]

How much did she pay for the domain?

Article says 180 000.

Not really "her".

Wondering why honest Co didn't take the .Co

 

[DomainVP]

Well let's be realistic here. There is nothing mere about that domain sale.

#1 it's Jessica Alba, so she is her own promotions machine; which is well worth billions of dollars.
#2 They have dumped a a lot of money into all forms of advertising... because again... it's Jessica Alba and she has millions of dollars.

$180k is not 'mere' for a domain name, it's about what they should have paid for the name, and what the owner was comfortable with selling for. I would have asked for $350k, but maybe they did and they got haggled down. Who knows.

I'm sure the owner of the domain did not have the money or star power to create a line of baby products. $180k will get you a lot of better names then "Honest".

In the end, all this story highlights is that a good sale was made and that Jessica Alba is going to be even more disgustingly rich.

Here is a real story... outbuildings.com sold for $21,000.

Sounds about right

 

[Name Trader]

From a war-chest of $52M, $180K seems quite cheap to me. It probably is the reason they didn't go for honest.co or honestco.com

 

[DomainVP]

Article says 180 000.

Not really "her".

Wondering why honest Co didn't take the .Co

Good point.

I'm sure they will... especially since it's technically now a 1 off typo domain for their exact match domain. Maybe they don't have an intellectual property person on their team yet.

I'll go see how much the owner wants right now and hopefully they will want $500 for it.

 

[GoWebnames.com]

I guess the extreme valuation of the "domain" Honest.com is all in hindsight, given the billion dollar valuation of present business being conducted at that name.
I don't understand how the word HONEST relates to Babycare except as a Brand name. For that matter, it could be any XYZ.com.
If you check google adwords, monthly searches are at only 60,000 with a CPC of $0.26 and "Low" competition. So, if the owner sold Honest.com for $180k while it was still a name, I guess it was a very good price he got.

The company's revenue is expected to exceed $150 million in 2014, three times that of 2013.
Read the report of Wall Street Journal HERE

It's solely for $150M yearly revenue that the business at this name is valued around $750M-$1B, IMO.
Of course, it helps to be Jessica Alba as well.

 

[DomainVP]

OP account suspended...

Hmmmm... he was posting a lot of news about domain sales and how high they were.

Wonder what the motivation was.

 

[Doron Vermaat]

So typical to see all the ".com is king" and EMD evangelist type domainers using this story to show the importance of having a generic .com domain while in fact the success of this company has very little to do with the domain name itself.

 

[verbster]

So typical to see all the ".com is king" and EMD evangelist type domainers using this story to show the importance of having a generic .com domain while in fact the success of this company has very little to do with the domain name itself.

I would guess lots of research went into which domain would return the best results. I would also guess that's the reason honest.co (or another domain) wasn't used. But who knows?

 

[Respondent]

So typical to see all the ".com is king" and EMD evangelist type domainers using this story to show the importance of having a generic .com domain while in fact the success of this company has very little to do with the domain name itself.

Typical because it's the truth. ".com is king". It has been ingrained into users of the net since the beginning. If you have domain name that's nuts.co and you tell someone to go to your nuts website. Where do you think they will end up first? I bet you 8 out of 10 would end up at nuts.com. In marketing and sales, the first rule is to get to the customer first and to get them to spend with you first before all others. And when it comes to volume that could make huge difference in dollars. So yeah, .com is king.

Now with time as you can see it will change. People are not even bothering with the net per say, but rather dealing with apps on their smartphones. But like anything new, it takes time for it to take hold. I remember in the late 90's how the Japanese were using text messaging like crazy. Here in the US, people were like that won't work here. Look at it now. People hardly speak over the phone. Now mostly via chat or text.
As for right now .com is king. And with time that will most definitely change.

As for company's success has little to do with having a generic domain name.

It doesn't hurt. Business is war.

Any and all advantage that you can have over a competitor is a plus. And branding for a company to be successful is key. Could Jessica Alba get away with a domain like HonestBabyProducts.com. Sure. But a domain name like Honest.com puts her company over the top. That's just plain baller and everyone knows it. While it doesn't guarantee success. It sure as hell doesn't hurt. I would take Honest.com over HonestBabyProducts.com any day of the week (heck even over Honest.co).

To my other domaining evangelists, can I get an "Amen!" :D

 

[SpareDomains]

@Respondent

Spot on, do you need a killer domain=no but it just makes marketing/sales so much easier and eliminates confusion. If ya can afford it makes sense to grab any advantage ya can get.

 

[DnEbook]

i said Jessi if you spend more than $175,000 on a domain …...i'm kicking you outta bed !

 

[HeyNow]

This whole thread is speculation and BS. In fact, the thread's title is so misleading that I'm surprised the mods don't yank it. Oh, wait, this is Namepros, where truthful posts about .tv are yanked, but an overly-embellished post title implying that a domain sold for 1 billion bucks because it's generic is taken seriously.

How disappointing.

 

[ecalc]

... I'm sure the owner of the domain did not have the money or star power to create a line of baby products...

The seller's portfolio could choke a donkey: home|kitchen|discount|children|design|skincare|tourism etc. dotcoms. Raising capital to create a line of baby products isn't a stretch. No star power you got that right, they keep a lower profile than a mailman at a dog show.

 

[Compassion]

As the owner of the .net I see the true value in developing before selling. However, if I am able to get a serious offer from Jessica and her posse, what ought to be the selling point?

We receive a box of Honest diapers everyone month and we are very happy with the product. The company is in the process of rolling out many more products...

 

[Josh R]

As the owner of the .net I see the true value in developing before selling. However, if I am able to get a serious offer from Jessica and her posse, what ought to be the selling point?

We receive a box of Honest diapers everyone month and we are very happy with the product. The company is in the process of rolling out many more products...

Great name to have! ... Certainly a .Net that I'd love to own.

I'm not sure if it would be worth it for Jessica to make a serious offer though...

 

[GoWebnames.com]

The seller's portfolio could choke a donkey: home|kitchen|discount|children|design|skincare|tourism etc. dotcoms. show.

This is awesome portfolio!

 

[JudgeMind]

I say congrats to the seller

 

[Name Trader]

This just goes to show you don't need many domains to be profitable. All you need is quality domains, preferably one word dictionary names. The only problem is what are they going to do after they've sold those domains. I'm guessing, but I'd probably retire (:

 

[Arpit131]

@stub I don't think anyone retires after making such a sale. They would go after acquiring other names which they may have the fortune to sell for even more profits.
Atleast I won't retire.

 

[aayush]

The domain deserved the price!!
Considering the reputation of the buyer, it perhaps sold for less.
Had I been in that place and known the buyer, I would not have agreed for less than $250k